I am not a Buddhist
but to pray over the soul
of a silk worm 
for its selfless toil
strikes me as extreme 
and absolutely wonderful.

I am not a Christian
but I know that good works
are multiplied 
like loaves and fishes,
and I cry 
just humming Amazing Grace.

I may not be a Pantheist or a Shintoist,
a Mayan or a Druid 
but I’ll be the first to bear witness
that the sun is indeed the eye of god
because spring forgives winter,
because prairie dogs have a vocabulary for color,
because your skin guides me through darkness.

—From Across My Silence (World Audience, Inc., 2007); republished here by author’s permission

Bio: Jack Cooper