A Ballad for GM Hopkins
He chose the path of service
the path to help the weary
to know that God is with us
the guilt in a perfect line.
Within juvenilia
the perfection of his rhyme
Gerard's marginalia
he left his golden echo
with the poor and downtrodden.
He served the starved immigrant
he prayed that God would pardon
the squalor in which they lived.
Where he suffered exhaustion
in simple life of service
he prayed to lift depression
that fell upon God's creation.
Sometimes received a blessing
through ill health caused by the street
an order for his writing
from his local Cardinal.
He felt writing poetry,
to work on perfecting line
was a form of vanity
when many needed God's love.
Whether he served on the street
his family remained the Church
helping the homeless to eat
a dedication to man.
Whether behind the pulpit
chanting Latin in his robes
congregation kneel then sit
before his raised arms to heaven.
To bring the body of Christ
to the world of poverty
to show what was sacrificed
and bring hope to the hopeless.
A Jesuit by training
gave the gift of poems
humble never complaining
of cold or hunger himself.
To write his benediction
Recommended
at night under candlelight
a cough due to affliction
his God held him in his palm.
He wrote about the Duetschland
a tragedy of his time
with Nun's Habits on the sand
after this tragic shipwreck.
But mostly he wrote sonnet
with skill history had not seen
his life buried upon it
his love of God stressed unstressed.
He wrote about the Sky Lark
bringing God's peace to the sea
though his days were grim and stark
each line testament of faith.
Within vows of poverty
a love of education
when worship was scholarly
he stood among believers.
To write humble appeal
through his internal turmoil,
what's spiritual and real
a deep love for his one God.
Through the sickness of people
who lived on the streets some alone
he would stand below steeple
to take the sickness away.
Spiritual exercise
retold throughout history
what metaphors symbolize
to give freely his real love.
Upon his death he left us
voices in the church choir
not one tone superfluous
shined on with heavenly light.
A dedication to life
the truth, the rhythm, the rhyme
often found within our strife,
Gerard, his inspired poems.
© 2019 Jamie Lee Hamann
