For Someone Who Did You Wrong by John O’Donohue - Poem for the First Sunday in Lent, Year A
The Englewood Review of Books curates a weekly series of classic and contemporary poems that resonate with the themes of the lectionary readings. Here is one of the poems for this coming Sunday (More poems for the First Sunday in Lent, Year A can be found here)
This poem was selected to accompany one of the
lectionary readings for the coming week, Psalm 32
For Someone Who
Did You Wrong
John O’Donohue
Found in:
To Bless the Space Between Us:
A Book of Blessings
SNIPPET:
Though its way is to strike
In a dumb rhythm,
Stroke upon stroke,
As though the heart
Were an anvil,
The hurt you sent
Had a mind of its own.
Something in you knew
Exactly how to shape it,
To hit the target
Slipping into the heart
Through some wound-window
Left open since childhood.
…
John O’Donohue (1956-2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularizing Celtic spirituality (via Wikipedia).