Prayer for the Fear of the Lord

Prayer for the Fear of the Lord

Mary Virginia Vietor

Give me dread.

Give me waves that rear and crash
In endless tides upon the sea.
Give me thrashing of thunder,
And the dizzying gape of the precipice.
Do we not need sublimity
To know our own abasement?

Vaster than the plane of sky,
More ancient than deep-hidden stones,
You are. Far better I
To cow’r and quake at the might of your hand,
Lest I drift towards some doom
Indifferent.

So Lord, give me dread, let me tremble!
Strike me dumb and my soul will know song.
As stars still beam before our eyes
A thousand years since their demise,
I beg you, sear me—
I will burn.

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Mary Virginia Vietor
Poet & Student

Mary Virginia is currently a freshman at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Her writing has been published by the Louisville Review, Dappled Things, and the Society of Classical Poets.

Photography by Elshad Aliyev