Perfection

"I will walk the way of perfection." Psalm 101:2

"I have had it with perfection. I have packed my bags, 
I am out of here. Gone.

As certain as rain  will make you wet,
perfection will do you in.

It droppeth not as dew upon the summer grass
to give liberty and green joy.

Perfection straineth out the quality of mercy,
withers rapture at its birth.

Before the battle is half begun, cold probity thinks
it can’t be won, concedes the war.

I’ve handed in my notice, given back my keys,
signed my severance check, I quit.

Hints I could have taken: Even the perfect chiseled form of 
Michelangelo’s radiant David squints,

the Venus de Milo has no arms,
the Liberty Bell is cracked."

~ Kilian McDonnell , OSB, born in Great Falls, Montana in 1921, joined the monastic community of Saint John’s Abbey in 1945. Today at ninety-four, he has authored four books of poetry, along with numerous other publications. Kilian is well known for saying that he does not write “pious verse or inspirational verse,” rather he writes about people who had big problems. “They had big problems with God, they had big problems with people around them, and they made terrible mistakes. People like us. Their relationship with God was not an easy one.”