[lit-ideas] Monday Poem
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:53:19 -0700
The Stonecutter's trial
Judge: You stand accused of
Frittering, wasting your
Time, how do you plead?
Stonecutter: Guilty, sir, if you
Think it so.
Judge: What do you mean 'if
I think it so?' Are
You in contempt?
Stonecutter: Only in the sense that
If you can't see
It isn't there, and yet
It once was for a
Few who saw its promise,
Judge: And so we've heard,
But these were
Few and have never
Appeared on Church rolls
In sizable numbers.
Stonecutter: Alas, it's true
Judge: Enough!
Seeing that you were
By yourself or nearly so,
Why did you not abandon
Your silly stones
And take a useful
Job like cutting grass
Or cleaning urinals?
Stonecutter: It's true, and I am
Ashamed that it is so,
But if I did as you
Suggest, I'd stay up
Half each evening cutting
stone.
Judge: But why, you silly
Cutter? It makes no
Sense to any here.
We've all been out
To view your pitiful
Stock of stone
And with no exceptions
Thought you must be mad
Or guilty of frittering.
Stonecutter: Perhaps it's both if mad
be what you think it is,
For I have had a vision
That you might find insane
If you could hear it.
Judge: And now we must if
You'd escape contempt.
Stonecutter: Well, sir, and I hesitate
To speak this to your
Disdain, but I have seen
The Lord walk down from
Glory using my polished stones
Judge: You what?
Stonecutter He came
As he had promised
In a time so far
Removed that they
Seemed no newer
Than the pyramids
Built by some forgotten
Cutter long ago,
And yet He knew
And blessed me as
He stepped, not
Skipping any, but
Touching every one
You now condemn.
Judge: You take my breath
Away, you foolish man.
(Away with him, now,
Bailiff.) I now
Sentence you to
Hard labor.
Stonecutter: Cutting stone?
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