Ben Myer’s “On Taking Communion with My Students”

Benjamin Myer’s (a different “Ben” to Faith and Theology fame) has a book of poems called Elegy for Trains and it includes this poem called “On Taking Communion with My Students”. After our Friday Eucharist in class, I thought his poem was a good follow up:

Let greasy spikes be caught in halos
thrown from chapel windows
and the lazy shuffle of saints
trace the body of Christ down the chapel alley.

Let this one,
paper late,
eyes avoiding mine
like two blackbirds in sudden flight,
receive.

And let this one,
absent a week
only to resurface
as the sinking vessel rises
one last time from ocean’s deep midnight,
also receive.

Let greasy spikes be caught in halos
thrown from chapel windows
and the lazy shuffle of saints
trace the body of Christ down the chapel alley.

Let this one,
paper late,
eyes avoiding mine
like two blackbirds in sudden flight,
receive.

And let this one,
absent a week
only to resurface
as the sinking vessel rises
one last time from ocean’s deep midnight,
also receive.

HT: TitusOneNine.