When I Returned from Rome

A

bird took flight.

And a flower in a field whistled at me

as I passed.

I drank

from a stream of clear water.

And at night the sky untied her hair and I fell asleep

clutching a tress

of God's.

When I returned from Rome, all said,

"Tell us the great news,"

and with great excitement I did: "A flower in a field whistled,

and at night the sky untied her hair and

I fell asleep clutching

a sacred tress..."

-- St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Italian saint, deacon, and founder of the Franciscan religious communities of the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of St. Francis, from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, edited by Daniel Ladinsky.