My name is Podrig Otuma and years ago I gave a reading in Australia and afterwards somebody came up and she had a book in her hand and she held out the book to me where I was sitting and it was open at a particular poem and she said, you should read this and I read it and I was totally

overwhelmed. I probably swore

and then she looked at me

and said, that book's yours now

and I love that poem

I love the book and I love how I got it.

Michelle Trebilko

is the woman who gave it to me

I stay an occasional touch with her

and the book is by the Australian poet Kevin Hart Michelle Trebilko is the woman who gave it to me. I stay an occasional touch with her.

And the book is by the Australian poet, Kevin Hart.

And the poem is called Prayer.

So here it is.

Prayer by Kevin Hart. Oh, come in any way you want, in morning sunlight, fooling in the leaves,

or in thick bouts of rain that soak my head because of what the darkness said. Or come, though far too slowly from my eye

to see like a dark hair that fades to grey, come with the wind that wraps my house or winter

light that slants upon a page, because the beast is stirring in its cage,

or come in raw and ragged smells of gum leaves dangling down at noon,

or in the undertow of love when she's away,

because a night creeps through the day.

Come as you used to, years ago, when I first fell for you in the deep calm

of an autumn morning, beginning with the cooing of a dove because of love, the lightest love.

...