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What, then?

Poem [1]
January 6, 2003 [2]
Kelly Cherry [3]

"Do unto others as you’d be done unto."
Of course, it’s not so simple: needed are
Imagination; willingness to give;
According to the great Socratic directive,
Some knowledge of just who it is you are;
And courage, for how else can we be true

 

To what goodness demands that we believe:
That the kingdom of God that is within
Is but the place from which we must begin,
As if we are all waiting to receive
The gift that everyone, like a magus,
Must bear, by light of some guiding star,
Across a perilous distance, close or far,
A sense of what it’s like, being us.

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Source URL: http://americamagazine.org/issue/418/poem/what-then

Links:
[1] http://americamagazine.org/sections/poem
[2] http://americamagazine.org/toc-past/2003-01-06
[3] http://americamagazine.org/users/kelly-cherry