A Poem for St. Patrick’s Day
Today is St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick has been an important saint for me for many years now. It was through him that I first became interested in “Celtic” Christianity which led me, ultimately, to the Catholic Church. It was in St. Patrick Church in Nashua, NH where I was received into the Catholic Church. And even now, the school where I currently serve as headmaster is located on the parish of St. Patrick Church in Spokane, WA.
So, for today, I want to share with you my poem for St. Patrick. This poem first appeared over at the Imaginative Conservative, and then appeared in my first poetry collection, The Green Man.
Have a blessed St. Patrick’s Day and remember, for all the feasting and celebrating, that Patrick was a missionary, someone compelled by the Spirit to spread the Good News to those who once oppressed him.
“St. Patrick”
In dreams you heard your mournful captors’ cry,
Calling you to be Christ where you once suffered.
Your heart was opened for them, it was not buffered,
But porous, taking them and leading them high
Above and beyond their druidical sense of the sky
As your paschal fire flames rose up unshuttered.
You showed them a hidden God with face uncovered,
And taught them three-in-one was not a lie.
You bound upon your breastplate a world connected,
And like the druids, you saw everything together.
For trees and rocks and air are bound up with us,
And seraphim and saints show us God reflected.
You saw the Spirit in the wind that blows a feather,
You showed us Christ above, before, and in us.
David Russell Mosley is a poet and theologian living in Washington State. His second book of poetry, Liturgical Entanglements, is out now. If you want to support his work, please consider donating through the button below.
