CHESTERTON’S CONVERSION
By James Morris
Word count: 318
Rating: G
Summary: A poetic version of Chesterton realizing the truth of Catholicism
Where do you go to get rid of your sins?
Keighley, North Yorkshire,
There to lecture; Gilbert, Keith.
On what topic? He doesn’t tell us.
Though he assures us it was an adventure,
The wild weather he relished.
How do I recover childhood innocence?
With Father John O’Connor,
Later to be immortalised as Father Brown.
Other dignitaries of the town; the doctor, the mayor,
Those interested in ‘intellectual fare’.
Two undergraduates on a walking tour,
Of the North York Moor.
What do I need to do?
He asked the priest’s advice-
Concerning a particular vice,
(About which he was going to write)
The priest warns him of the dangers,
And at one point corrects him,
Chesterton was surprised;
He knew more than me
Those dangers he perceived
The priest knew more than me
Fr O’Connor turned out to be-
The life and soul of the party.
All were sad when he left,
When he took his leave.
The priest knew more than me
‘All the same…I don’t believe…’
(said one of the undergraduates)
‘I don’t think it’s right,
To shut yourself away like that,
You’ve got to go out and face real life’.
Chesterton almost guffawed;
The priest was just some innocent abroad,
Who knew nothing of ‘real life’,
When in fact,
After what he had revealed,
The priest knew all about evil in the world,
He warred against it every day of his life.
My morbid youth
Playing Planchette
He knew more than me
Those dangers he perceived
He has plumbed the very depths
What is this Roman Catholic thing?
Where do you go to get rid of my sins?
A few years later he was Received.
*
I often think of those two undergraduates setting out again-
On their ponderous walk through the North York Moor.
Ponderous I am sure, discussing the latest modern ideas,
(Being from Cambridge), Fr O’Connor already at home,
Safe and secure.