How St. Francis Sings

by Jeffrey Essmann | October 5, 2022 1:00 am

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This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Sheila Murray-Nellis.

How St. Francis Sings

Teach always
and if necessary
use words;
then he leapt over
Italian meadows
brown cloak
flapping like bird
wings.

Hold life in a cup
of light
fellow creature
fellow crooner
fellow joy bellower!

Don’t you know
these we
name
turn moist eyes
on us,
chewing cuds
of expectation,
preening feathers
of mercy?

See how their flight
parts to the right
and to the left;

See how your own heart
lifts
her wondrous wings!

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Sheila Murray-Nellis is a native of Massachusetts but now lives in British Columbia, Canada. She has had poems published in Saint Katherine Review, Clarion, Mslexia, and elsewhere. She has twice received the first prize for poetry in the Kootenay Literary Competition. Her book You Are Meant to Be Like Fire was published in 2014. She has also published children’s books.

Source URL: https://integratedcatholiclife.org/2022/10/how-st-francis-sings/

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