{"id":2470,"date":"2007-03-27T16:56:49","date_gmt":"2007-03-27T23:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=2470"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:40:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:40:53","slug":"our-lifes-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2007\/03\/27\/our-lifes-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Life’s Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"blood<\/a><\/div>\n

Our Life’s Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carnal syrup which flows within,
\nwhy not make it art?
\nIt has been spilled
\nenough to fill
\nthe gloomy pit of Tartarus.
\nFerry to us the draught of life.
\nPreserve us from dissolution,
\nfor our gene codes fight dauntlessly,
\nagainst this.
\nBe not used to segregate others,
\nfor humanity is one tribe.
\nThou art the mystery, the
\nsinew, and the richness
\nthat makes our lives worth living. Yes.<\/p>\n

–Kathryn Harper<\/p>\n

—
\nFor Poetry Thursday<\/a>. This poem is based on a Poetry Thursday exercise<\/a> using a style called ekphrasis<\/a>. The photograph is of a piece by René de Guzman and is titled Blood Color Theory<\/span>. His artworks allude to current issues such as the HIV\/AIDS crisis in the early 1990s. In this piece, de Guzman sandwiched his own blood, mixed with preservatives, between two Plexiglass sheets. The work’s impact lies partly in the shock value to convey the message, and the work takes on the formal qualities of a minimalist painting. What I find intriguing are the images reflected. This poem, which echoes The Lord’s Prayer, is the result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Life’s Prayer Carnal syrup which flows within, why not make it art? It has been spilled enough to fill the gloomy pit of Tartarus. Ferry to us the draught of life. Preserve us from dissolution, for our gene codes fight dauntlessly, against this. Be not used to segregate others, for humanity is one tribe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,28,16,215,3],"tags":[335,336,61,229,334],"class_list":["post-2470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aenigmas","category-humanities","category-nature","category-poetry","category-science","tag-blood","tag-body","tag-life","tag-poetry","tag-prayer"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10616,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470\/revisions\/10616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}