My Expiation Poem by robert dickerson

Cranky, cunning, bitter, mad
Are several epithets I've had
Others that have been allowed
Are silly, shallow, vain and proud
Add to the list concupiscent
Stupid, angry, arrogant
And it's only thoughtlessness
Finally I need confess.

But, oh, my people, I declare
My expiation to be sure:
Never have I strewn the land
With any offal-from my hand
Never has the earth received
Ought but she herself conceived
And this sole virtue comprehends
Many of my other sins.

For the man who loves the earth loves God
And in his valley ever trod
His petty vices he forgives
Who wholly by her precept lives.
Brings him happiness galore
And quick preclusion of despair
That still in spite of other fault
Those that love the earth exult.