Why I Left (not the GOP, originally, although it could be that too)

I did not think there could be so much noise
I would have rather had a world of light
Than all those colors, advertisements, toys
And guaranteed successes overnight.

I would have rather had a world of rain
Than one of preaching what I could not feel;
Some isolated alley where the pain
And storms could blow; that would have been more real

Than schedules, conversations, graceless days,
The desperation of a formless aim,
A building with no soul, no sight, no praise
And nothing healed and everything to blame.

And so I walked that rain-soaked alley down
To find some Gothic walls that I could keep;
Stole silently into a caverned room
All candles, stained-glass, wood and stone, whose deep

Impenetrable stoneness gave me hope
There was a place of peace could not be sold;
I sought no sermons, only gestures–groped
Within the shadows, lovely, dark, and old,

For what was left that could be left alone,
For what remains when we have done our worst–
The sudden coming of His calling home
Repentant, eucharistic, unrehearsed.

Image: Pixabay.