St. Francis and the Sow – the Essence of Metta in a Poem (with Music)

St. Francis and the Sow

By Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers from within, of self-blessing;

though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;

as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of the earth on the sow,

and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,

down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

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Here is some incredibly beautiful music from from the movie Amélie.  The composition by Yann Tiersen is called “Comptine d’un autre été – L’après-midi.”   This poignant music seems to me to fit the poem beautifully:

You can purchase this music here at iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/comptine-dun-autre-ete-lapres/id16439528?i=16439466

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