Mary Karr is an Ignatian-influenced former atheist, recovering alcoholic, and one my favorite poets. I’ve written about her before. This poem is entitled “Who the Meek Are Not.”
Not the bristle-bearded Igors bent
under burlap sacks, not peasants knee-deep
in the rice paddy muck,
nor the serfs whose quarter-moon sickles
make the wheat fall in waves
they don’t get to eat. My friend the Franciscan
nun says we misread
that word meek in the Bible verse that blesses them.
To understand the meek
(she says) picture a great stallion at full gallop
in a meadow, who—
at his master’s voice—seizes up to a stunned
but instant halt.
Read the rest of the poem here.
Image from Wikimedia Commons