'A Good Man Ther Was Of Religoun' Poem by Michael Pruchnicki
'A Good Man Ther Was Of Religoun'
Chaucer goes on -
'And was a povere Parsoun of a town
But riche he was of hooly thoght and werk
He was also a lerned man, a clerk...'
Let's saddle up with the pilgrims on their way
to the shrine at Canterbury and look at a saint
in the garb of poor parish priest, a man
rich in holy thought and more to the point
an active worker at his priestly task
A man of spiritual wealth
A priest not like the affluent and worldly monk
nor the thieving and lecherous pardoner
a priest who honors his vocation
by his daily work among the poor and sick
Give me a saint who's not afraid to soil
his hands grubbing among the poor
Avoid the liberal cleric hobnobbing
with politicians and justifying oppression
by looking the other way
A poor Parson rich of holy thought and work. Like Chaucer's Knight, he sounds like a worthy man. Then there's the bawdy comedy of the parish clerk Absolom in his quest for the Carpenter's wife. Too bad for him hende Nicolas had already 'caught hire by the queynte, /... And heeld hire harde by the haunchebones, ' The window scenes may not be as famous as Shakspeare's balcony scene in Romero and Juliet, but after the banding, what a climax. Chaucer gets a lot darker with the Prioress's Tale. A young boy with his throat slit hidden by the alter. A metaphor for today's abuse of children by priests? Tom
Enjoyed your thinking my friend but such priest are few and far between. Organised religions have become mere ladders for power seekers. The vows of povert chastity and obedience seem somehow to have been lost in the scramble for promtion.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 12:04:31 PM # 1.0.0.1119
A priest unafraid to dirty his hands in the real world. The robes and trappings of religion are rarely need in the ministry of the unsung hero.