Homily for the Homeless: a poem by Brian Kates

hands, fingers, image by Chris, on Pixabay, modified

Homily for the Homeless

Here is the church

               On the steps

Here is the steeple

               homeless, pregnant

Open the doors

               a woman sleeps

and see all the people

               unseen

(Previously published as part of Poetic License 2024, an exhibit sponsored by

the Upstate Artists Guild (UAG) and Hudson Valley Writers Guild (HVWG)

from October 4, 2024, through November 10, 2024.)

__________________________

Brian Kates is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. His non-fiction book, 'The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady,' a saga of modern American homelessness, was acclaimed by the New York Times as “a book in the grand journalistic tradition.” His poetry has appeared

in Spirit Fire Review, Amethyst Review, Paterson Literary Review, Gyroscope, and elsewhere. He is

a founding member of Hook Mountain Poets, which seeks to make poetry part of the landscape of New York’s lower Hudson Valley. 

September 2025 issue