The Desert Fathers
We have their sayings, strange and wise,
With just enough of sandy grit
To take the soul quite by surprise
(A horse that of a sudden shies…)
At what at first can only seem
A Christian life lived so extreme
One knows not what to make of it.
And yet there is the strange allure
To leaving everything behind
And staking out a place that’s pure,
Uncomplicated, insecure;
A place where all you have to do
Is every day surrender to
A Word you simply can’t define.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, Amethyst Review, the St. Austin Review, The Society of Classical Poets, The Road Not Taken, Edge of Faith, Pensive, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.
Amethyst Review 