My Prayer-Poem for Wednesday 7 April 2021

My Prayer-Poem for Wednesday 7 April 2021
(Fourth poem for the Easter Octave)

The Plague

In Albert Camus’ book “The Plague” in nineteen forty seven,
he gives an antithetical account of life in blissful heaven.
In graphic detail he describes a plague of hellish power;
the clanging bells of ambulances sounding hour by hour.
Among the heaps of corpses and the constant waves of fear
are people strangled in a town; a bitter, tragic year.
A priest called Father Panaloux, a Jesuit by vow,
preaches a sermon at the Mass addressing reasons how
these common folk, by acts of sin have only self to blame;
he preaches quite detached from them, like he is not the same.
Then, Father Panaloux lives through a rupture deep within;
a transformation of the heart, changing his view of sin.
He sees the suffering of a child with eyes dark and inflamed
and tears on sunken cheeks; the priest begins to feel ashamed.
When spasm after spasm passes on a sodden bed
and wasted arms and legs like a dear crucifix are spread,
the priest is changed by where he’s been and what he sees that day;
instead of preaching “you” and “your” when planning what he’d say,
his sermon is more thoughtful on the following Sunday.
And so, from nineteen forty seven, to times we find so strange,
this global crisis brings a moment and a chance to change.
An Easter chance to reconnect with nature, peace within
and those despised and demonised because of self and sin.

​©️Mark Andrew Smith