POET  AND  PRIEST 

I am a poet. 

There I said it.
Dare I say it? 

I became a priest June 20, 1965

when Cardinal Spellman put his

hands on my head and said the words.

When can poets say that they are poets?

I’ve listened and read the poems of

Mary Oliver and Seamus Heaney  -

Dereck Walcott  and Denise  Levertov.

Am I being a bishop declaring them poets?

Or does a poet ordain herself or himself

a poet - by holding a book of poems -

in the air saying, “This is my body.

This is my blood - which I pouring out to you?”

These are my words made flesh,

my Listenings and my Cries …. But Silent.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

Listenings is my first book of poems - 1980;

Cries … But Silent is my second book, 1981.

Both are out of print, but I’ve written

thousands of poems, most unpublished.