Thank God for Desmond Tutu

.
thank God for
Desmond Tutu
you came in your purple robe
but you were transparent
you spoke of God as something so close
one could be forgiven
for thinking no other was speaking

thank God for you
Desmond Tutu
for a God so intimate
that you spoke your love affair in whispers
for a God so majestic
that angels’ wings
couldn’t match the spread of your arms embrace
nor the breadth of your word’s encompass

thank God for you
Desmond Tutu
for discovering Africa in us
we may not have testified
in pentecostal cries
but we have wept with you through a quarter century testing
in our refusal to accept the lie

thank God for you
Archbishop
you speak to a flock that flies free
beyond the sweet white lambs of religion
to the lost and found
the angry sad old rams
caught in the fences of their dreams
who are refugees wherever they are in this world
who suffer the apartheid of their self existence
and long to end this separation and return
to that One
where all is beautiful and unique

Tutu you are so transparent
if we look inside your cloak
do we find anything there
but the echoes of His laughter.

Christopher Ryan, 9 February 1995

Christopher Ryan is a poet and novelist who lives in Hawick, Scotland. For more on his series of novels, see our recent review.