Not
white and shining like an ardent flame,
Not like Thy Mother and the Saints in
bliss,
But
white from head to foot I bear my blame,
White as the leper is.
Unclean!
Unclean! But Thou canst make me clean:
Yet if Thou clean’st me Lord, see that I be
Like
that one grateful leper of the ten
Who ran back praising Thee.
But
if I must forget, take back Thy word:
Be I unclean again but not ingrate.
Before
I shall forget Thee, keep me, Lord,
A sick man at thy Gate.
--Katharine Tynan,
“The Leper,”
Irish Poems (1914)
Image source: Brian
Kershisnik, Ten Lepers Healed, available
at: https://www.newvisionart.com/products/ten-lepers-healed
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