A medicant beggar
in a town square, a medieval figure
seeks charity and finds when people
give him the time of day,
a dollar or sandwich to get by on, something
shifts in their eyes, their face:
they walk away, or sit for a while, changed, more
at home with being charitable—
with rising hope,
perhaps, there is another way
to live, to love in the light that shines
both on this man with the gentle voice
and the glass towers
around him that he draws them from
like so much water flowing, running
to the well
a historical reversal, a moment at the crossroads,
as faith seeks its centre, asks for what
it needs—
comes into the open.
There are people who humble us by the way they live their lives. Their simple acts. They way they approach ordinary tasks with extraordinary patience and awareness of what might matter in that moment; the way they connect from their core, with the world around them and bless it with God’s love by doing so. This poem celebrates that. You can find it in my latest book of poems, “Quiet Waters.”