Lay for the Day 29th June

The feast of St Peter and St Paul. (See also 25th January, the feast of the conversion of Paul, for a poem about the Apostle to the Gentiles).

From the book of Praises:

49. Of St Peter

The brawny legs and blue feet under sparkle
Of the surge; at the cock’s third stretch and ruffle,
A stiff neck bowed and gone. Dear water-walker,
Dear denier, your love, of all, is realest
To us, because the most rebuffed, the most tried
And sorely pleaded. Between us and the sun
You stand with the shadow you drag, that heals us,
With your outbursts, your leaps and weeping, steady.

John Gibbens
from Collected Poems

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar