CAMPUS HOME COMPANION [W, 9-16-20]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

As I re-read my column of last Sunday, about the death and life of my friend, Bob, I realized for the first time that at no point did I give his last name. So, today’s poem is dedicated to Robert Yates Butts, my 1960s campus ministry colleague.

CAMPUS HOME COMPANION      [W, 9-16-20]

In rows of glad array

they come walking toward me

bright in eye and smooth of cheek

the boys of summer and the girls of spring

 

but as they near I know

my eyes have, yes, betrayed me

gently, for brows are wrinkled

hands darkly mottled, legs slow, uncertain

 

still, I beckon, and I turn

now with them close behind me

I lead these old and ragged hopefuls

to the ash grove, their campus home companion

 

and there we pray

John Robert McFarland