A few weeks ago we read Luke 15:11-32, the story of the prodigal son, and read the Elizabeth Bishop poem One Art.\u00a0 Kathleen mentioned that Bishop also wrote a poem about the prodigal son.\u00a0 Here is the text:<\/p>\n
The Prodigal<\/p>\n
The brown enormous odor he lived by
\nwas too close, with its breathing and thick hair,
\nfor him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty
\nwas plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.
\nLight-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
\nthe pigs\u2019 eyes followed him, a cheerful stare\u2014
\neven to the sow that always ate her young\u2014
\ntill, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head.
\nBut sometimes mornings after drinking bouts
\n(he hid the pints behind a two-by-four),
\nthe sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red;
\nthe burning puddles seemed to reassure.
\nAnd then he thought he almost might endure
\nhis exile yet another year or more.<\/p>\n
But evenings the first star came to warn.
\nThe farmer whom he worked for came at dark
\nto shut the cows and horses in the barn
\nbeneath their overhanging clouds of hay,
\nwith pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light,
\nsafe and companionable as in the Ark.
\nThe pigs stuck out their little feet and snored.
\nThe lantern\u2014like the sun, going away\u2014
\nlaid on the mud a pacing aureole.
\nCarrying a bucket along a slimy board,
\nhe felt the bats\u2019 uncertain staggering flight,
\nhis shuddering insights, beyond his control,
\ntouching him. But it took him a long time
\nfinally to make his mind up to go home.<\/p>\n
-Elizabeth Bishop<\/p>\n
The poem reminds me of this folk song performed by my friend Sam Amidon<\/a>.\u00a0 Sam is on tour in the US right now, so if you like it, look up the tour dates on his website and check him out, he’s amazing!<\/p>\n