GOD, PRAYER, and our BLOG: Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy

Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. 2 Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

Carol Ann Duffy (1955-)

The last line of this poem might be confusing "Rockall. Malin. etc" Here is what a good commentary writes (which can be found at http://www.squidoo.com/carolannduffy )
The final couplet is our epigram - the shipping forecast. The Shipping Forecast is seen by some as comforting and a daily ritual that happens every night before bed time, just like a prayer. It is also a navigation aid for the traveler - a traveler on the ocean, which conjures up images of solitude and vastness rather like human existence in the universe.