Lay for the Day 3rd January

Martin Luther was excommunicated on this day in 1521.

Plums, pears and apples,
sing the folk in the chapels,
while the Quakers smile:
Thou light of the Maker’s.

Won’t you come home?
asks the high Church at Rome.
Home, home to me,
says the old C of E.

Beware the Beast,
chant the monks of the East.
Those who are least
shall be at the feast

Be perfect as God is,
hymn the Methodists.
No longer sin’s captive,
cry the Baptists.

Where’s an end to your searches?
inquire all the churches.
And who does live and not transgress?
cries a voice in the wilderness.

John Gibbens
from Simples

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar