I Go to School

I seek a teacher and a rule,
Dear Brother Francis, and a school
Where I can learn to be a fool.

The world is erudite today;
The folk of Gubbio and thy gray
Brother Wolf are dead, they say.
Sweet friend of Christ, thyself shalt be
My book of gentle courtesy.

A single purse, a single cloak
Do scarce suffice for modern folk;
Such foolishness as once thou spoke
About thy Lady Poverty,
That, poverello, tell to me.

Bird songs in Umbria were sweet,
Or else, mayhap, thy quaint conceit
Found meanings now quite obsolete.
God’s little one, wilt share with me
Thy sister birds’ sweet psaltery?

Stars nebular and wise, indeed,
Above Averno shared thy creed
Of pierced Heart and Wounds that bleed.
     Enamored Knight of Calvary,
    Teach me love’s madmost ecstasy.

Behold my teacher and my rule;
Thyself, Saint Francis, art my school;
God give me grace to be a fool!

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