Two Poems by Gerard Garrigan, OSB

In Greeneland

(To Graham Greene)

In Greeneland, that dreamland
Those with eyes too blind to see
Would have us all believe
You traced the ways of insidious grace
In dark, unseemly places
In weak and falling, doubting souls
Whom only He would come to save
Who had the gall to say
I came not to call the righteous
But sinners
In Greeneland, no dreamland
Where only the improbable is real
Where hearts must break before they heal

The Gospel according to Flannery

In memory of Flannery O’Connor

“. . . my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.”
(Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners, p. 118)

That damned devil’s doing
Ever froing and toing,
Indeed, in deed
Everywhere a body goes
Strong enough to make man fall
Over and over, but that’s not all
But not as strong or stubborn
As grace among this sorry,
This sorry, but redeemed, race,
This God-haunted, sorry human race

Gerard Garrigan, OSB is a Benedictine monk of Saint Louis Abbey in St. Louis, Missouri. Free digital copies of his poetry may be obtained by emailing him at frgerard@priory.org.