Seven Sonnets on the Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6: 9-13
After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
For ever, Amen.
Daily Bread
Give us this day our daily bread, we pray,
As though it came straight from the hand of God,
As though we held an empty plate each day,
And found it filled, by miracle, with food,
Although we know the ones who plough and sow,
Who pick and plant and package whilst we sleep
With slow, back-breaking labour, row by row,
And send away to others all they reap.
We know that these unseen who meet our needs
Are all themselves the fingers of your hand,
As are the grain, the rain, the air, the land,
And, slighting these, we slight the hand that feeds.
What if we glimpsed you daily in their toil
And found and thanked and served you through them all?
Malcolm Guite
(Parable and Paradox, Sonnets on the sayings of Jesus and other poems)
Canterbury Press Norwich, 2016
is an English poet, singer-songwriter,