Lay for the Day: 27th September

Lay for the Day 27th September

The feast day of St Vincent de Paul, patron saint of vine-growers and vintners.

A poem from the book of Praises, a sequel to the one ‘Of Wine’, unsurprisingly:

11. Of More Wine

Provided by the Lord for revellers in Galilee,
where none sat askance and sipped, with pious indulgent smile
or palm across the brim.
They soaked it up in the reeling steps of Noah the brewer,
our Saviour among them, an enjoyer.

If Socrates could sink the volumes Plato pours for him
and still talk wisely,
could not the Nazarene imbibe the like and do still what he
did best, namely love God?
The Son of man was not some maudlin boozer,
who called his death “this cup”.

There are no icons of tipsy Jesus
and we take our sherry austerely at the altar rail.
Men in white gowns give us pills and medicine.
They tell me that you’re coming to another wedding soon.

John Gibbens
from Collected Poems