Pastor pens a Houston Harvey poem that perfectly captures the spirit of the city

Tarmohamed Kara is evacuated with his wife, Mumtaz, from rising waters, from Tropical Storm Harvey, on an airboat in the Orchard Lakes subdivision on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas. less Tarmohamed Kara is evacuated with his wife, Mumtaz, from rising waters, from Tropical Storm Harvey, on an airboat in the Orchard Lakes subdivision on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in unincorporated Fort Bend County, ... more Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 117 Caption Close Pastor pens a Houston Harvey poem that perfectly captures the spirit of the city 1 / 117 Back to Gallery

A Harvey Hurricane poem by penned by South Carolina Pastor Jeremy Rutledge, who still considers Houston his hometown, and posted just yesterday on Facebook has gone viral. In it, Rutledge invites people to pray for Houston in a Houston way and even offers a bit of instruction "pray like Beyoncé when she was at HSPVA, " he suggests and "pray like you're sitting over soup at Spanish Flowers or pho at Mai's steaming your glasses."

Rev. Rutledge wrote his poem in just minutes. Inspiration came after talking to a cousin in Memorial who had moved to the second floor because of rising water around her home and after watching footage from the hurricane-spawned floods on TV. But his knowledge of Houston runs deep: This was the place his grandparents lived -his mother grew up here when Meyerland was still a new neighborhood surrounded by woods. Here he watched the Astros play for his 2nd grade birthday party (and where he saw Jose Cruz hit that home run, described in his poem). As an adult, he met his wife here, celebrated the birth of his son and spent 10 years as minister of Covenant Baptist Church.

HELP AND RELIEF: How to help victims of Hurricane Harvey

Today Rutledge has added to his offering to Houston by urging folks to donate to Hurricane Harvey relief - to the Red Cross, to the Salvation Army or to local food banks. On his Facebook page he wrote:

"Yesterday afternoon I wrote a few lines to my old hometown of Houston. I made the post public and this morning it has 2.2K likes and 1.6K shares. I was surprised how many people thought what I wrote was a prayer. It wasn't a prayer — it was a poem to a place and people I love. My real prayer is the donation I made this morning. I invite you to do the same."

In an interview, he explained that as a minister his other prayers, of course, continue. But he knows Houston will need both prayers and donations for a long time to come. "We will keep saying prayers and sending donations - we know it's only just starting. There are a lot of us around the country who love Houston and who love people who live there."

Here's the full text of his Hurricane Harvey poem.

If you want

to pray for Houston

you have to pray

in her way



pray like Beyoncé

when she was

at HSPVA

or Billy and Dusty

shooting pool

at Rudyard's

pray like you're

sitting over soup

at Spanish Flowers

or pho at Mai's

steaming your glasses

pray like the kids

playing soccer

on the east side

or mutton busting

at the livestock show

pray like the runners

in Memorial Park

lacing them up

or the researchers

in the medical center

looking into microscopes

if you want

to pray for Houston

you have to pray

as quietly as

the Rothko Chapel

or Houston Zen Center

and you have to pray

as loudly as

the old scoreboard

at the Astrodome

after a José Cruz

home run

you have to pray

sitting under

a live oak tree

or standing next to

an azalea bloom

while your skin

clams in the heat

if you want to pray

for Houston

you have to pray

without pretense

this ain't Dallas

and in a neighborly way

as friends come out

to check on each other

in the rain

and those

who are far away

watch screens

and wipe our eyes

if you want to pray

for Houston

raise a bottle of Shiner

to the gray sky

and say that 130 mile an hour winds

and 9 trillion gallons of rain

are no match

for a city of such life

and diversity

you can fill up our bayou

but you will never rain

on our parade