Jitterbugging for Jesus

The physician and celebrated American poet William Carlos Williams (*see link down below) was a sort of poet of the people in that his poetry focused on the common lives of common people.

What I admire about him is that his poetry and interests in common folk included those poor people we still see today without really seeing–the “invisible people” of our times who are mopping the bathroom floors at Walmart or frying the fries in the hot kitchen at McDonald’s or the homeless women pushing their shopping carts on the streets.

My favorite poem of Williams’ is “Pastoral,” in which he so clearly sees what I see in my walks on the back streets and roads of Belize–houses cluttered with junk and outhouses (and outdoor showers with hoses if a family has any running water) and “furniture gone wrong.”

The poor are always with us.

So pay attention.

This is of vast import to your nation.

Pastoral
by William Carlos Williams
(1883 – 1963)

When I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor:
roof out of line with sides
the yards cluttered
with old chicken wire, ashes,
furniture gone wrong;
the fences and outhouses
built of barrel staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
that properly weathered
pleases me best of all colors.
No one
will believe this
of vast import to the nation.

(from The Collected Poems of W.C. Williams, New Directions)

*More on the life and work of William Carlos Williams here.