Canterbury prison years ago
I was a part time chaplain
A pleasant young man asked to see me
And told me how lost he felt about life
He couldn’t see a way forward
Or a way out of his troubles
He was doubly imprisoned
Inside prison walls and inside his mental dungeon
As he talked I listened
And as I listened a picture came into my mind
Of a gently flowing stream
And of stepping stones that the overflowing water
Concealed from view
I told the young man my vision
What I saw as he was speaking
The stepping stones are there
But you cannot see them just now
Some time later back in the prison
The young man came to see me
‘You were right,’ he said
The stepping stones are there
And I am beginning to see them
Without vision the people perish
The Good Book says
Proverbs 29:18
I could have said to that young man
‘Don’t worry – it will be alright’
A fat lot of good that would do!
But I gave him an image a picture
Something he could see
A vision of the future
Inspired by that vision
He walked on
Brian Fahy
16 March 2022
Erris Poetry 