Sr Gertrude Howley, pbvm shared the below poem with her Friends of Nano Meditation group recently at an online retreat.
The group became aware from listening to the poem and from sharing that Covid is teaching us…
To accept what is
To live simply
To see beauty
They summed up the fruits of their reflection in the serenity prayer;
I am Covid
And like the prophets of old
I screech and howl and roar.
I make you sick,
I infect you one by one.
I snatch your loved ones.
You run away
But I meet you on the way.
If you listen, hear my silence,
Not my roar,
You will create conditions
In which I cannot survive.
Then I will go as silently
As I came,
Leaving you in a greener land
With friendlier people.
You are not listening.
You hide from me behind masks,
Kill me with vaccines.
Running faster along the way,
You create conditions
In which I thrive.
Oh foolish people ever slow to hear
The voice of prophets.
I am friend not foe,
Saving generations yet unborn
From the folly of your ways,
Ready to go, leaving my role
To those who, hearing, know
This too will pass,
when the people listen.
Stop now, face me.
∼ Sr Gertrude Howley, pbvm