At school, the look-up homework
one day was ‘mercy’…
and that proved itself
to be indeed itself
what the dictionary said
haunted; seemed inadequate;
haunted again
he smelled his life, as one
smells Spring in the air
of a freezing January day
every one of his thoughts
began and finished
with the word unsounded
then his actions too grew
out of it, returned to it
his friends, his wife, his family:
some heard it, some did not
years passed; in the darkness
of the quiet evening street,
the great and famous called on him
what he had to say was
too great for the public,
too young yet for the public
but the word, nourished,
slipped into the courtroom,
whispered in the palaces,
stood behind the priests
who did not say it yet
heard it murmuring in their ear
while for him, the word grew and grew,
flew with him higher ever higher
so they talked of how to martyr him
because the word was too big for them
he died before they decided on his fate
and was that too what it meant
leaving the word in the air like
a limitless embrace, like
the warm wish of a departing guest
said over the shoulder with a smile,
a wave, a memory
and a sowing and a growing,
a reaping, a vastness, a light,
a boundless love
Michael Shepherd
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-flew-with-angels/
