Today is the feast day for Saint Thomas Aquinas. I was pleasantly surprised to find the prolific theologian and philosopher, Doctor of the Church, and faithful Dominican priest also wrote poetry. I am not qualified to critique his style (or the translation), but his poetry mixes well a deep sense of faith with a lighthearted sense of humor.
I said to God, “Let me love you.”
And He replied, “Which part?”
“All of you, all of you,” I said.“Dear,” God spoke,
“you are as a mouse
wanting to impregnate a tiger
who is not even in heat.
It is a feat
way beyond your courage and strength.
You would run from me
if I removed my mask.”I said to God again,
“Beloved, I need to love you—
every aspect, every pore.”“There is a hideous blemish on my body,
though it is such an infinitesimal part of my Being—
could you kiss that if it were revealed?”“I will try, Lord, I will try.”
And the God said,
“That blemish is
all the hatred and cruelty
in this world.”— Saint Thomas Aquinas (from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, translated by Daniel Ladinsky)