Poetry and prayer are very similar.

Taken at face value, Duffy’s remark suggests that poetry and prayer share a common impulse: a concentrated, rhythmic use of language to address what feels larger than the self—whether that is God, love, grief, memory, or moral truth. Both forms often rely on repetition, incantation, and heightened diction to create intensity and focus, and both can function as acts of attention: naming what matters, confessing, pleading, praising, or giving thanks. In this sense, the similarity is less about doctrine than about practice—poetry, like prayer, can be a disciplined way of listening inwardly and speaking outwardly, seeking meaning and consolation through carefully shaped words.