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native tongue

  • Writer: rypennington94
    rypennington94
  • May 12
  • 1 min read

Updated: May 14

a poem

Prayer belongs to the broken hearted,

the weary,

and those who keep their souls guarded.


For those who leap, spilling laughter while

picking lilacs of the land.

For those who run laps around the spectators,

whose senses lie dormant,

begging to awaken to wonder.

But even there,

prayer holds the aching and the waiting.


In the suffocation of clenched fists

and the exhaling surrender of open hands,

prayer is a wisp—finding its way into

cave and pasture.


For the griever swallowed by galaxies of loss

and the star-crushed lover wishing to be wished upon

with the mind-swept intoxication of bright wine.


For those pinned down by the thumb of suffering,

those spinning on the carousel of cynical snobbery,

and those left parched from the drought of apathy

with its deliciously dry promise of protection—

prayer is yours.

All yours.


Lift your voice,

tune your heart,

pick up your flute

and play with the LORD your God

as your native tongue ignites

a new song.



 
 
 

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my fun bio:

My name is Ryan Pennington. I'm an obnoxious Nebraska Husker fan (who doesn't even love corn or the color red). My favorite bands are Twenty One Pilots, Nightly, and Kings Kaleidoscope. I enjoy playing piano, going on walks, and traveling to concerts with my wife. Green is my favorite color and my tattoos prove it. 💚

my spruced up bio: 

Ryan Pennington is a pastor-poet, communicator, and educator whose work explores the sacred architecture of ordinary beauty and inevitable pain. A lifelong Midwesterner, Ryan spent the first half of his life in Nebraska before settling in South Dakota, where the seasonal rhythms of the Great Plains deeply inform his writing. He holds a B.A. in Theology from the University of Sioux Falls and an M.Div. from Kairos University (formerly Sioux Falls Seminary). After nine years in pastoral ministry, Ryan now serves within the Sioux Falls School District, maintaining a creative practice through writing, preaching, and neighborhood walks. His debut collection of poetry and prayer, Both and, is slated for publication in 2026. He lives in Sioux Falls with his wife, Crystal, and their cat.

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