Piérre Ramon Thomas

A Religion Unto Itself

by Piérre Ramon Thomas

(First published in Marymount University’s Literary Arts Magazine BlueInk 2021)

How solemn and sacred it is,
For a man to consecrate his time,
And regard the rantings or ravings,
Musings or fancies
Of a poet.

Such a noble sacrifice of self,
To make still one’s soul,
And give attention to the labor
Of thoughtful, careful composition
And arrangement of words
Of a rhymer or proser.

The liturgical acts of: attending
The high-steepled cathedral,
The rain-stained temple,
Constructed from deep ruminations;
      Gazing upon the stained-glass windows
      Of fracted, colorful images 
      Conjured up and imagined
      By the pope of literary art;
            Listening with the ears 
            Of the heart and mind
            To the poetic and prosaic scriptures
            Of the gospel of the anointed wordsmith;
All are devotions done by the reader,
For baptism in the doctrine of his verses.

Sympathy—even up to empathy—
Is tithed 
Into the collection plate of the poet,
That the reader causes herself
To partake in his thoughts, emotions, and feelings 
Wheresoever the good ones or the depressed ones
Had taken him.