PRAYER RISING
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The hidden word
is not so hidden.
It has three letters.
In every language
it’s the same light
that fills inside of your skull,
makes your eyes bright,
your hands quick to touch,
and your words quick
to deflate arguments or problems.
It makes lightness
where there was none,
because it has such gravity
nothing seems seems as heavy
as it once was.
All of life
becomes purposefully.
It fits inside of you
like a birthright,
a meaning you always knew
but never knew was there.
It fits inside of you
like a remembrance
of your childish “just beginning.”
Belief<
Tell me about sunlight
before the moon has risen.
I don’t want to forget your face
while you are away.
Give me a laundry-list
of your likes & dislikes, idiosyncracies,
fantasies, fears, & shames—
& I will wash them.
I will hang them out to dry.
I will spend my lonely hours
watching these categories
waving in the breeze.
But, you will not be caught.
You will be overhead,
in your purest essence,
smiling down on me
as I clutch your snap-shots—
mistaking them
for the actuality.
You are so great.
Even in my darkest hours,
you light the moon—
you give me something to believe in.
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Book Details
About the Book
Amber Rhea McMains is a twenty-one year-old poet with a history of mental illness that served as the catalyst for her prolific writing.
Raised in
As a recent adherent to the Baha’i Faith, notions & questions about the role of God in our modern, technological society bind the theme of her first book, “Prayer Rising.”
It is about the hope that comes in spite of, but also, through the vehicle of pain.
McMains writes from a place of redemption, endurance, & compassion for all life: the visible forms that bewitch our senses, & the underlying spirit that animates everything to be.
About the Author
Amber Rhea McMains began writing poetry when she was in elementary school. Since then, poetry has swum in her hair, hauntingly.
McMains was born in 1982 to a broken home. Expelled from her Junior High & repeatedly arrested—her personal problems would culminate in a 4-year bout of alcoholism, Major Depression, suicidality, & anxiety disorders, until—tossed from institution to institution, she would spend a year re-discovering herself in a mental hospital. A recent adherent to the Baha’i Faith, connection to God re-awakened her to the world, love, hope, & dreams.
McMains writes to enact positive transformation in the world. She lives in