I must
not succeed.
Success is the mind-killer.

Success
is the little-death
that brings total

obliteration. I will face

my success. I will

permit it to pass

over me and through

me. And when it has
gone
past, I will

turn the inner

to see

its path. Where

the success has gone there will be

nothing.
Only I will remain.



About this poem
"'Prayer' is a gerrymandering of Frank Herbert's 'Dune,' a novel I devoured as a teenager. By reconfiguring and altering the language of Paul Atreides' mantra, this poem reveals the contiguous space fear and success occupy in the mind."
-David Tomas Martinez

About David Tomas Martinez
David Tomas Martinez is the author of "Hustle" (Sarabande Books, 2014). He is a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Texas Tech University and splits his time between Lubbock, Texas, and Brooklyn, N.Y.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 David Tomas Martinez. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate