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How should I Pray?

If I’m to pray to God
what are the “shoulds”, the practices,
to which I must be true
if I’m to do so properly?
 
Should I care
if what I want to say to him
is slurred and in content is
unspecified, a wordless groaning in the air?
 
Or should I be on point  
with speech coherent and precise,
articulate
in my address to him?
 
And when I send my pleas to him
should I be standing up
as one must be
when one is in the presence of a king,
or sitting down
or set upon my knees
or bowing to the ground?
 
Should I tightly close my eyes
to summon up  
a hot degree of fervency?
Should I be smiling then
in order to assure my pleadings will be heard  
or sour-faced  
with some uncertainty about
god’s willingness to grant
with speed just what I ask
be done for me?
 
Should I beat my breast and sigh,
especially before men’s eyes
in hopes that all might see
my piety?
Or should I do as Jesus said
that’ I’m to do
and go inside
an empty room
to pray in secret and in privacy?
 
Should I precede my prayer
by signing with my hand
my head and torso with
the cross?
And if I do, how then should I
my signage demonstrate:  
from left to right as Roman Catholics do
or right to left as ritually demanded by
the Orthodox?    
 
Should I, when I’m intent
to speak unto my god,  
adopt the orant’s pose
with hands spread wide
and lifted up to heaven’s home
or should I set my palms together in
a pointed arch?
 
Should prayer take place
within a church
or in a mosque
or in some other dedicated holy space?
 
Should I make my time for prayer
a morning’s enterprise
or one that’s done throughout the day
(the Muslim way)
or when I am ready for my bed?
 
Are there certain words I need to use
to open up my prayer
and when I bring it to an end?
 
It seems to me
that all these things
need answering if you
possess desire  to  know
not what you are to feel
when sending any plea  to God
but what requirements,  protocols,
should be observed
for speaking to him properly.
Written by Baldwin
Published | Edited 10th Jul 2022
Author's Note
This is what I think JZ should have written if he had actually fulfilled the expectations he created for readers by giving his most recent piece the title "How Should I Pray?".
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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