What did you mean
I’d ‘learn from it?’
I learnt so much
That my spark was lit
When all that you spoke
Was holy writ
In the early years,
In the way of it.

I mused, and listened
And took it in,
And sought for the path
Of the way within
‘Til I thought I’d found
Original sin –
And a box to tack
My religion in!

I cared so much
That my fingers bled,
My eyes ran blind
And my senses, dead!
My mind is numb
And my heart is bare –
Just what was the ‘it’
In the ‘that’ out there?

David Lewis Paget