A dear friend, a priest, who leads silent retreats I always attend (and will again, post Covid) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS incorporates poetry into his talks between our silent times.

And at the end of the retreat he always always urges us to read a poem daily.

When I first met him I almost died when all the retreat handouts were poems. "I write poetry," I told him. He asked me to send him one. (Heaven points here; my stuff sucked back then) The next day, he came up to me: "Ah, the poet!"

"Oh, it's probably not very good," I said.

"Never apologize for your poetry," he replied.

Father Michael is my 'niece' !!!!