World Poetry Day, 2017
If I was a poem-me, I’d be
a circus juggler meets Sor Juana
with a niggle of Neruda and a
waltz of Walt.
The swing of Hughes’ blues
and the scat-patter of Fitzgerald
would herald speaking of light
like May Sarton who for pages
places flowers in vases
and I’d illuminate the letters
as did my brothers and sisters
who in convent and monastery
took up quills and honestly
worked to open the windows
behind the Word so the world
could see what was being heard
when proclamation occurred
and the glory of the story
was suddenly off the pages for the ages
free to fly, do or die–
You and I
decide now, today,
that Poetry stays:
To nourish, to heal, to delight, to praise,
to call, to soothe, to challenge,
to be
where people can meet in full humanity.
If I was a poem-me,
that’s the sort I’d want to be.
Kimberly M. King, RSCJ
Consider the Lilies 