Lay for the Day 3rd January

Martin Luther was excommunicated on this day in 1521.

Plums

Plums, pears and apples,
sing the folk in the chapels,
while the Quakers
smile: Thou light of the Maker’s.

The least
shall feast,
chant the monks of the East.
Beware the Beast.

Won’t you come home?
asks the great church of Rome.
Come home to me,
says the dear C of E.

No longer sin’s captive,
cry the Baptists.
Be perfect as God is,
hymn the Methodists.

Where’s an end to your searches?
enquire all the churches.
And who does live and not transgress?
cries a voice in the wilderness.

John Gibbens, from Simples

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar