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the prodigal son revisited

A few weeks ago we read Luke 15:11-32, the story of the prodigal son, and read the Elizabeth Bishop poem One Art.  Kathleen mentioned that Bishop also wrote a poem about the prodigal son.  Here is the text:

The Prodigal

The brown enormous odor he lived by
was too close, with its breathing and thick hair,
for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty
was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.
Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
the pigs’ eyes followed him, a cheerful stare—
even to the sow that always ate her young—
till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head.
But sometimes mornings after drinking bouts
(he hid the pints behind a two-by-four),
the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red;
the burning puddles seemed to reassure.
And then he thought he almost might endure
his exile yet another year or more.

But evenings the first star came to warn.
The farmer whom he worked for came at dark
to shut the cows and horses in the barn
beneath their overhanging clouds of hay,
with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light,
safe and companionable as in the Ark.
The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored.
The lantern—like the sun, going away—
laid on the mud a pacing aureole.
Carrying a bucket along a slimy board,
he felt the bats’ uncertain staggering flight,
his shuddering insights, beyond his control,
touching him. But it took him a long time
finally to make his mind up to go home.

-Elizabeth Bishop

The poem reminds me of this folk song performed by my friend Sam Amidon.  Sam is on tour in the US right now, so if you like it, look up the tour dates on his website and check him out, he’s amazing!

<a href="http://samamidon.bandcamp.com/track/prodigal-son">Prodigal Son by Sam Amidon</a>

Posted in: Links, Poems

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