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Saturday, April 23, 2011

My Heart is an Open Wound with Love for Her




My Heart is an Open Wound with Love for Her
A poem by St. John of the Cross, a Benedictine mystic

A lone young shepherd lived in pain
withdrawn from pleasure and contentment,
his thoughts fixed on a shepherd-girl,
his heart an open wound with love.
He weeps, but not from the wound of love,
there is no pain in such affliction,
even though the heart is pierced;
he weeps in knowing he’s been forgotten.
That one thought: his shining one
has forgotten him, is such great pain
that he bows to brutal handling in a foreign land,
his heart an open wound with love.
The shepherd says: I pity the one
who draws herself back from my love,
and does not seek the joy of my presence,
though my heart is an open wound with love for her.
After a long time he climbed a tree,
and spread his shining arms,
and hung by them, and died,
his heart an open wound with love.

1 comment:

Mary said...

Love this poem! John Michael Talbot sings this... I remember listening to it when I was very little during my Dad's conversion. I think JMT converted him. ;)