This Is a Hymn

Here is a poem by Lorna Goodison entitled "This Is a Hymn" that I thought fitting for this space after Adunare's recent posts on the question, "Can God be trusted?" and on Gregory Wolfe's lecture. I think it also goes well with the poem posted by e.go recently.

"This Is a Hymn"

For all who ride the trains
all night
sleep on sidewalks and park benches
beneath basements
and abandoned buildings
this is a hymn.

For those whose homes
are the great outdoors
the streets their one big room
for live men asleep in tombs
this is a hymn.

This is a hymn for bag women
pushing rubbish babies
in ridiculous prams
dividing open lots
into elaborate architects' plans.

Mansions of the dispossessed
Magnificence of desperate rooms
Kings and queens of homelessness
Die with empty bottles
Rising from their tombs.

This is a hymn
for all recommending
a bootstrap as a way
to rise with effort
on your part.
This is a hymn
may it renew
what passes for your heart.

This hymn
is for the must-be-blessed
the victims of the world
who know salt best
the world tribe
of the dispossessed

outside the halls of plenty
looking in
this is a benediction
this is a hymn.