The Burning of the Summa
On a spring evening at the Sorbonne
The sleepy monks awoke to the scent
Of a smoky burning pyre of French pine.
In the courtyard they slowly shuffled through
To find the source of the fine smelling blaze
The Angelic Doctor inspired by God’s grace
Bringing his humble, contrite heart to bear
The Summa bound like Isaac on the mountain.
Yellow pages of golden loving wisdom
That strange child of Athens and Jerusalem.
The court illuminated, the lilies in bloom
Aquinas, ecstatic, proclaimed his loving wound:
“All I have done is straw!” And the monks in awe,
In silence shifted their robed feet in wonder.
Yet his brothers did not understand.
From his hands they wrenched their reasonable idol
Aquinas, meek in sheeplike countenance
Was led back to quiet prayerful quarters,
The saint denied his finest sacrifice.
Patrick Hamilton is a writer and poet from Charleston, South Carolina.
Amethyst Review 