'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ The promise is: do these things and you will be in relationship with God. But the Salvation Army and Goodwill are overwhelmed with the homeless families, the food banks chronically run low, and who really cares that they run halfway houses for the incarcerated? Do you?
Tyler! Thank you for sharing your poem with us today. There’s a rawness to your poem that speaks to the embodied nature of life in the city. The centeredness of the lines “Find me here, God.” I feel a sense of solace and hope by the end—“seeds are being sown and plants watered.”
For years the old man
with the long grey hair
and sapphire blue eyes
brought 4 gallons of chocolate
milk each Sunday to the Center for Hope:
he knew that homeless families
took shelter there, and he’d seen some kids.
One day the janitor noticed him
saying ‘you are the one?’
Yes, why do you ask?
‘O, some mornings it comes with our
breakfast—this is a halfway house
with sixty inmates
we pour it on our cereal
it is the best part of our day
some of us pray for you.’
The old man can’t drive anymore
but he sits in the park wondering.
'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ The promise is: do these things and you will be in relationship with God. But the Salvation Army and Goodwill are overwhelmed with the homeless families, the food banks chronically run low, and who really cares that they run halfway houses for the incarcerated? Do you?
Tyler! Thank you for sharing your poem with us today. There’s a rawness to your poem that speaks to the embodied nature of life in the city. The centeredness of the lines “Find me here, God.” I feel a sense of solace and hope by the end—“seeds are being sown and plants watered.”