Vision and Prayer

We’ve pretty much gotten out of the habit of sending Christmas letters and cards. But in 2012 I was bubbling over with the beauty and, however quirkily, with the devotional content of my decades-long favorite Dylan Thomas poem. So I formatted it up into a booklet and sent around to friends and relatives.

You know the one I mean: “Vision and Prayer.” Six seventeen-line stanzas of Vision, followed by six of Prayer. Each Vision stanza begins with one syllable, followed by two, et ainsi de suite until the ninth, where it turns around and diminishes to one again on Line Seventeen. The lozenges of the Vision yield to hourglasses in the Prayer, putting a wonderful emphasis on the single-syllable Line Nine of each.

So far, no Thomas-estate lawyer has come knocking at Chankly menacing me with the pains and penalties of copyright violation. But I’m leery of such: library-expert Rick has explained the associated constraints more than once, but I’ve been no better at staying awake through all that lawyerly gobbledygook than through discussions of finances. So, I grit my teeth and incur whatever hazard accrues from displaying Stanza 1 of the Vision and invite you to rejoice over the booklet stored, with other formats, in a folder named

121208 Vision and Prayer

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Updated Jul 2020

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