“Blowin’ in the Wind:” Cole Arthur Riley and a Prayer for Place

("Blowin’ in the Wind" is a periodic feature on my blog containing an assortment of nature writings – songs, excerpts, poems, prayers, Bible readings or other things – pieces written by others but that inspire me or give me joy. I trust they’ll do the same for you.)

One of my more recent discoveries is a work by young African-American writer Cole Arthur Riley. I first became acquainted with her initial 2022 book, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us, in some of my racial righteousness work. I found her writing astonishingly and even painfully lovely as she shared poignant essay after essay on her experience as a woman of color, particularly her situation, of course, as a black woman of color. She wrote there on such subjects as dignity, wonder, rage, belonging, fear, lament, place, justice and liberation, among others.

Her early reputation and following, however, was first established in a series of online writings called “Black Liturgies,” which she began in 2020. It is then no surprise that Riley’s second 2024 book came out with that selfsame title, Black Liturgies, subtitled Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human. Both of these books are New York Times bestsellers. It, too, is deeply moving and tender, an affecting collection of poems, prayers, ‘letters’ and spiritual practices that draw a person into meditation and prayer over some of the same subjects she writes on in her first book; but then the last half of the book presents liturgical and meditative resources on holidays and seasons of the church year. I recommend both of these books highly.

This brings me to the prayer I’d like to share on my blog this month from the book Black Liturgies, Riley’s third chapter entitled Place, and the prayer, “For the Land:”

God of creature and sky,

We have not protected the divine in all of creation. We have forgotten our origins, placing ourselves as superior to the very earth that formed us. Humble us, God; shake us from the belief that we are capable of ruling over the earth when we cannot even care for humanity. Remind us just how young we are in comparison to the cosmos. We are no saviors; make us learners. Make us listen for and heed the quiet things whispered by the soil and sea. Free us from our narcissism as we look on the suffering of other creatures and find our souls at last stirred. And as we become honest about our flagrant degradation of land, may we protect those countries and peoples who have disproportionately suffered the greed of the powerful. May we listen to the Indigenous wisdom in our midst, those who have long warned us that this land does not belong to us – that our ownership of it is our collective delusion. As we look up from the lie, may we find tree and star and dirt, and become the earth’s meekest disciples and fiercest protectors. Amen.

I will let this beautiful prayer speak for itself, and urge you to join with me in praying it.

~~ RGM, January 30, 2025