Franciscan Poems
Henderson, Daniel & Seton, Mary & Stork, Charles Wharton & Wood, Clement & Duggan, Eileen
October 6, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 527 SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI ORA PRO NOBIS "The...
...What utter waste there is in wealth expended The falcon was your angelus...
...October 6, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 527 SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI ORA PRO NOBIS "The Lord bless thee and keep thee...
...From the baying field...
...Juniper I am juniper, and I am wicked...
...How vain is now our pride in what we do...
...Until the world, from whom your soul was driven, He loved in every soul drawing human breath Woke to a little loveliness again...
...And understood, Do not mind him...
...Tamed at your soft whispering, as he Hungry, half naked, you were always giving Brought his harsh and hungry nature under What the mind knows not but the heart can feel...
...The Blessing of Saint Francis The Minstrel of God Seven times the centuple wheels of life have whirled, I Since Francis in his brave abandonment O sweet strange minstrel of the joyous singing, Committed his young way to a free world When the torn lands lay bleeding in the dark And the great hand of God...
...You had a word to lift their longing higher...
...above him bent With dripping sword and ripping lancehead bringing The pitying sky...
...You have gone before me into heaven, Speak through us with love You will answer for your fool...
...the Lord show His face to thee and have mercy on thee...
...When shall the panting fox Little Father, it is true...
...You found anew the Christ-like joy of living Even the wolf, his steel jaws hot from plunder, For what no moth corrupts, no thief can steal...
...Lo...
...your preaching On things which minister to self alone...
...Your love sway...
...Poverello II Seven hundred years ago it was you ended The noisy swallows quieted at your teaching...
...Your mission, Poverello, having shown The shrill grasshopper gave you heart to sing...
...Went most to souls that heard you on the wing...
...When song and the sweet salvation of mirth MARY SETON...
...To the wild again EILEEN DUGGAN...
...To this varied folk And your love worshipped Him in everyone...
...Others had made His golden singing still...
...Should rule again over the reddened earth...
...Francis, gospeler For if I went first you know I'd blunder, To the listening wood ; Setting angels by the ears, Cuthbert, whom petrels heard And who'd say, "Poor juniper is sorry...
...DANIEL HENDERSON...
...I let it rest a minute on me, And the seed sent down a root...
...the Lord turn His countenance to thee and give thee peace...
...But it came when you were dead...
...he saw in the sun and moon Death to harsher life, like Sister Lark And light of the stars, the smile of God, and heard You trilled your melodies at the ear of heaven, His voice in the music of the sea, the croon A halo of harmony above the pain, Of the wilful wind, and the joyous lilt of a bird...
...Prayer for the Huntea That's as sure as steel is blue, Juniper, the fool, is very wicked...
...Trust, mercy, peace all those that love him will And you could see a lightening tomorrow Know in their lives his triple blessing still...
...See his tears...
...Discover its shield Sin is like a little field-clock flying, In the bosom of man Like a dandelion fruit...
...Brother Wind and Sister Sea, You hailed alike a sister or a brother Sister Moon and Brother Sun, with these you spoke, In criminal, virgin, wolf, bird, moon and sun...
...Only one beast hid snarling in his den Ah, Little Brother, let us learn of you ! You could not tame the wild lost tribe called men CHARLES WHARTON STORK...
...While the rest are sobbing I am singing Cannot mercy live Out of tune upon my stool, In the hearts of men...
...CLEMENT WOOD...
...Granting a kind greeting to the Brother Fire What God had wrought, to you could not be other, Who healed your body...
...The spirit of the Maker, Whose best peace Minstrel of God, you knew that they spoke ill Followed his shining steps to the bourne of death Who called the One you loved a Man of Sorrow: And filled the orbit of his life's increase...
...When shall the fowler turn I was good that night when you were dying, And rend his snare And your cold hands touched my head, As the meshed oriole O I beat my breast then with the others, Utters its prayer...
Vol. 4 • October 1926 • No. 22
