I saw a prison cell
Narrow and confined
And then another darker cell
Solitary in mind
Grim and life denying
Sadness to the soul
Of anyone caught up in there
Desperate for parole
I know that kind of feeling
I’ve lived inside a cell
Monastic cell
From age of seventeen
I remember the day I landed there
Shown up to my room
Slam dunk noise of closing door
Sense of lonely doom
It takes a man of maturity
To live inside a cell
We were only boys that time
But we’d bought the sell
Keen to follow Jesus
We gave our lives away
Took the vows they urged on us
Locked in from that day
Brian Fahy
1 December 2021
+ We need to live in the world before we ever choose to leave it for religious life. The world teaches us and helps us to grow up in a ‘normal’ environment.
Erris Poetry 