Skip to main content
Home
  • About
  • Quotations
  • Newsletters
  • Events
  • Blogs
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • Search

I don't know exactly what a prayer is

Mary Oliver
May 2014 (Vol. XXVII, No. 5)

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?

~ excerpt from Mary Oliver's The Summer Day
New And Selected Poems
attention
Buy on Amazon

Newsletter Subscription

There is no cost to have the Friends of Silence monthly letter sent to you each month.

Yes, I want to subscribe!

Free Daily Quote

Enjoying the Friends of Silence monthly newsletter? Now you can sign up to receive a free daily quote in your inbox each morning taken from more than 37 years of 410 newsletters and 5,450 quotes on silence and the contemplative path.

Sign Me Up!

Donate Now

For the past 35 years, a small band of dedicated friends have poured their hearts and love into Friends of Silence.

Each month we send out the newsletter in print and email to a growing community of over 10,000 people.

The monthly newsletter of contemplative quotes remains free and is made possible by your generosity and support.

If our work brings you any hope and a sense of belonging, then please consider supporting our labor of love with a donation.

And if you’ve already given, from the bottom of our hearts: THANK YOU.

Donate Now

Search Quotes

Quotations by Author
Quotations by Source
Quotations by Topic
Daily Quotes
Get iPhone App

Quote of the Day

Prayer is a sacrament,
an outer, visible expression
of an inner, invisible grace--
or intention.

~ Sam Keene
 

Home | About | Quotations | Newsletters | Events | Blogs | Donate | Subscribe | Search

Friends of Silence Friends of Silence | 1681 Patriots Way | Harpers Ferry WV 25425 | Phone: 304-870-4574
Unless otherwise noted, all material © Friends of Silence 2025