This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by William Prendiville.
Bells
Bells still ring.
You can hear them across the capital
For funerals, on holy days, or for Sunday Mass.
Few listen, except the old, the lonely,
The hard-bitten, and a handful of more pertinacious
New arrivals, who bear their faith
With a joy that startles like
The flash of sun on a fender or neglected chariots
Carrying a king.
William Prendiville is the author of the novel Atlantic Winds and the memoir Love Is Nothing but the Fruit of a Long Moment. Other poems include Five Shakespeares.
