Country Rider

Illustration from: Quaker Reflections to Light the Future: A Collection of Pictures (1967)
Illustration from: Quaker Reflections to Light the Future: A Collection of Pictures (1967)

remembering George Fox

He poached in the English shires
for the dissenting souls he cherished.
And channeled what came to him
straight into his journal.
So we was taught to do good unto all
but especially to the household of faith.
He read the prevailing winds of doctrine
and his hurry attends to what is timeless
buried in a history of habit.
There are entries in the Journal for this.
What he wrote out
is a story squarely in your face
the history of salvation
. . . I had declared the truth to both
the priest and the people and showed
them the deceit they lived in. . . .
Hostile parsons and jail were nothing new.
About his life there was nothing easy.
To keep the record accurate
he took notes. And tallied the human sum
like the outlier he was. From whichever side
of the prison wall.

 

Correction: The print version had “our” for “out” in line 11.

1 thought on “Country Rider

  1. The use of “poached” in the first line confused me. I thought it might be a typo, or spell check error, where preached was meant. I looked up the definition of poach in Merriam Webster dictionary. There it says:

    2
    a : to take (game or fish) by illegal methods
    b : to appropriate (something) as one’s own
    c : to attract (as an employee or customer) away from a competitor

    Meaning c seems to apply here

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Maximum of 400 words or 2000 characters.

Comments on Friendsjournal.org may be used in the Forum of the print magazine and may be edited for length and clarity.