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POETRY
Psalm of Trust
The Lord is my Partner.
I need not be frantic.
He
provides my peace of mind,
He removes my tiredness.
He is forever
faithful even when I wander.
He sends angels on my journey to correct and
guide me.
Although I walk among the cynics, and hatemongers, the
homeless, and the crazies
Even on the evening news when I see a young man
beaten
and left,
like a scarecrow to die on a fence post,
I am not
controlled by fear and irritability.
In consolation and desolation You teach
and comfort me.
You prepare a life for me in the presence of my
skeptics.
You provide more of this world’s goods than I could ever
stuff in my closet
My heart overflows.
Your care and concern are palpable
to me.
Your forgiveness total.
I long to be with you forever,
As You
fully are.
--John Montague
Toronto
Distinction
Those dear old hymns --
he’s not sure any
more
about the words.
But he still believes
in the music.
--Fr.
Joseph Gallagher
Baltimore
Winter Reflection
Icy breath
swirls tree tops,
sways even the
oak.
Its very sound chills.
Bare-boned trees,
exposed,
hide
nothing
nor can themselves be hidden.
Naked before Nature,
they
clatter, clatter,
branch against branch,
incapable of all but
waiting.
Such clarity comes with winter.
Stripped of
everything,
one can see the essential:
evidence of unseen tendrils
rooted deeply in frozen soil,
sap-blood that courses even in cold.
In winter we wait.
Wait.
And witness
the cosmos’ darkest
secret
and God’s profound promise:
there is no death.
--Judy Cannato
Mentor, Ohio
Devil’s Advocate
A useful saint should dramatize
what timely, tested
virtues are.
Let no one then be canonized
who did not own and drive a
car.
--Fr. Joseph Gallagher
Baltimore
Happy Talk
Learn it quickly, learn it right:
Joy on earth is joy
despite.
--Fr. Joseph Gallagher
Baltimore
Haiku
earthworms sip the rain
dance at the edge of the
grass
wake up the robin
--Timothy Pettet
Kansas City,
Mo.
A young woman stands inside
A young woman stands inside
her billowing cotton
dress
clothes pins clutched
between her teeth
gathering sun-dried
bed sheets
she uses the wind to fly
each blanket like a flag
never to
touch the ground
laying it folded in her basket
she moves to the
next
harvesting fragrances
to be served at bedtime
--Timothy
Pettet
Kansas City, Mo.
National Catholic Reporter, March 19,
1999
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