THE POOR

By Speer Strahan, C.S.C.

The poor I saw at the cloister gate

Mutely beg with their patient eyes

An alms, for the love of Him who sate

And supped with the poor in human guise.

And there were monks saw the nails’ deep scars

In the shrunken hands that reached for bread,

Who heard a Voice from beyond the stars

In the broken thanks of them they fed.