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St. Joseph, Carpenter
What is a Pantoum?
This poem began as an exercise in poetic form. The ‘pantoum’ is a difficult, woven arrangement of lines that circles around to end with its own beginning. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next. New lines are woven in until the final stanza, in which lines 3 and 1 of the first become lines 2 and 4 of the last stanza.
Within these tight boundaries, I played with subtle variations in the repeated lines to develop layers of meaning.
The initial use of “Amid shavings…” indicates God’s presence in the midst of and despite the ‘mess’ of daily life and work. When that line is repeated as an introductory clause, the meaning shifts to Joseph’s responsibility to provide, “though my God lives here.” God, source of all good, has chosen to supply himself through Joseph, to mediate goods to Christ through this man.
When line 6 is repeated, “my child” changes to “the Child” to signify the way every father’s sacrifice of self for his family can be a gift to Christ. Similarly, from line 12 to line 15, “father” becomes “Father” to emphasize that obedience in the home prepares children to obey God.
Joseph’s role – like every father’s – takes on this tremendous significance in light of the supernatural destiny of his child.
The “finite economy” of earthly toil for food and shelter – a trade of hours for commensurate goods – stands in contrast to the “Balance Infinite” – a Person. Christ’s presence within Joseph’s own home transforms all his ‘natural’ sacrifice according to the extraordinary proportion of the love of God the Father. In Him, thus in the home of the Holy Family, is the union of finite with infinite. This union elevates every human life to the possibility of a share in the interior, ‘family’ life of the Trinity. This reality illuminates a seeming contradiction in the turning of trees (now dead…mere lumber) to life.
The carpenter’s work of transformation alludes to our need for rebirth into the shared life of the divine community of persons, for which family life, work, trials and pain prepare us. At the literal center of the poem is the Cross – the ultimate tree of life, but also the warped and hurtful thing man has made of a tree, instead of crafting it to furnish a home with beauty.
Joseph, like Mary, had some sense of the pain that was to come for their beloved Son. His own bearing of that cross for all the years of Christ’s childhood was an ‘enfleshment’ – a lived example – of ideal and holy manhood and fatherhood. Surely that example, that gift, strengthened Our Lord during His Passion.
I love to give this poem to men on Father’s Day, and you are welcome to do the same!
St. Joseph, Carpenter
I saw and sand and join and cut and plane
to turn trees into life, shared life so dear.
Often so much is spent, so little gained.
Amid shavings and struggle, though, my God lives here.
To turn trees into life, shared life so dear,
I gladly lay my strength at my child’s feet.
Amid shavings and struggle, though my God lives here,
my part is to provide shelter and meat.
I gladly lay my strength at the Child’s feet.
Uncomprehending, yet in trust, I offer all.
My part is to provide shelter and meat;
to teach a son to heed a father’s call.
Uncomprehending, yet in trust, I offer all.
Warped boards and splintered hands the cross I bear
to teach a Son to heed a Father’s call:
“Fear not, my son, these trials – for I am there.”
Warped boards and splintered hands: the cross I bear.
Manly estate enfleshed for son and wife.
Fear not, my son, these trials, for I am there.
Father, Son, Child, Lord – present in the strife.
Manly estate enfleshed for son and wife;
finite economy weighs burdensome.
Father, Son, Child, Lord – present in the strife;
Oh, Balance Infinite blessing my home!
Finite economy weighs burdensome –
often so much is spent, so little gained.
But Balance Infinite waits in my home!
I saw and sand and join and cut and plane.
All the poems are now in one volume, and I’d love for you to have a copy! Click on the cover to buy it, and click here for the recordings of all the poems.
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