Pearls for Swine

St. Francis And The Sow


The bud

stands for all things,

even those things that don't flower,

for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;

though sometimes it is necessary

to reteach a thing its loveliness,

to put a hand on its brow

of the flower

and retell it in words and in touch

it is lovely

until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;

as St. Francis

put his hand on the creased forehead

of the sow,and told her in words and in touch

blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow

began remembering all down her thick length,

from the earthen snout all the way

through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,

from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine

down through the great broken heart

to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering

from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking

and blowing beneath them:

the long, perfect loveliness of sow.




—Galway Kinnell



The first time I read this poem it touched a tender place in my heart. I found it in a literally small book of poetry appropriately titled ten poems to open your heart by Roger Housden. It's a wonderful collection and certainly is true to it's name. I tucked it into my bag and carried it with me for weeks. To my delight, St. Francis and The Sow appeared on the Perceval Press site, reminding me what beauty really means.

Growing up, we always had a statue of St. Francis in our garden. Cardinals would sit and call from his extended arm. Squirrels scurried around the base, up to his smooth head and into the nearby apple tree. In my child's mind, I thought he must enjoy their company. Now, full circle, St. Francis stops by in a heartfelt poem to connect soul to nature. Cool.







St. Francis and the Sow ~ pen & ink, Sharpies (can't help myself :)