Saint Francis and the Sow

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares the poem "Saint Francis and the Sow," by Galway Kinnell. Kinnell was born in 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island. He studied at Princeton University and went on to earn his master of arts degree from the University of Rochester. Kinnell was very active in the Civil Rights movement and the antiwar movement during the Vietnam era. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Selected Poems in 1983 and served as Vermont's Poet Laureate. He died in 2014 at the age of 87.

This poem is not a traditional, historical legend about Saint Francis of Assisi, but, like Saint Francis, Kinnell explores themes of nature, beauty, and the sanctity found in all things, including the humble sow. The poem affirms that sometimes we need to be reminded of just how beautiful we are.

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 27 years in Psychiatric Times in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is an instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Tender Fences.