translation by Jennifer Grotz
Psalm 6
Then I  came to dream of writing 
the  great prayer of our time . . . 
This  ambition plagues me constantly:
I could  never have the right to such a voice.
I draw,  of course, from the choir of voices in my soul,
voices  that come to me through blood or friendship,
chance  cries and similar calls for grace,
even  echoes of those I’ve barely encountered.
I  assemble an interior liturgy in this way,
by  finding the great number who reside in me.
If my  dream is laughable, Lord,
extinguish  it, for it consumes me. 
It  guides me in what I seek:
could  poetry be a kind of grace?
I hold  on to this lovely hope 
more  tenacious at times than my demons.
But  human thirst infiltrates it as well: 
my most  intimate liturgy would like to be the most intimate of all.
One must  be able to hear the cry of others, to do nothing but 
empty  the self for the sake of a common call.
To hear  in the voices of others your love cry and your lament: 
so  I go silent: you hold me.  
	   Contributor’s notes: Patrice de La Tour du Pin
   	   Contributor’s notes: Jennifer Grotz











 
     
    
 
   