Barefoot Monk Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

I saw you:

But at night
Barefoot and gaunt.

Your feet were numbed
They scarcely moved.

Your shroud was shabby
As be so oft ghost shrouds

A rosary bead in your hand
You do not posses much more.

And that be why
Your heart does not weigh down

I
That have what weighs me down
I am weighed down.

You have no chains though you
Walk slow.

And little by little fade
Into new Dawn.

Beneath the Monastery

Beneath the monastery
A whole basement of rock

Hewn in the rock
Upright stand monks
With habit frozen still.

Hood and within the skeleton
You who know peace
And yet so shabby stay.

Thereby you demonstrate
Humility and the rest.

And having seen
I yearn to be there
With you
Inhabitant frozen
Of that basement rock.