‘An Ode to the Freemasons’

     

Today is World Poetry Day. Poet Maria Matuscak penned the following verse, which was read aloud by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario one day in 2017 on the occasion of a cornerstone ceremony there.

An Ode

to the Freemasons,

Gathered Here Today

Walk onward, brothers, arm-in-arm
towards the giants rising in your midst. Together you form a chain
……..which will ensure the monsters of poverty and intolerance
……..your line taught, unyielding to the false gods
…………..that feed the starving masses in your streets. For you
care not
Who is the Creator,
…….God or Man: the goal is simply to strive.
For you hold, you hold tight
And dear you are stone
And one of you cannot sink if his brothers hold him tight.
Whom but God could wrench the wounded man
……from your embrace? And you march forward,
……toward an ever-receding horizon, but the point is:
………..you march.
……………..And you do not stop.
……………..And those who cannot march on their own accord
……….you carry,
And the cornerstone too weighs upon your shoulders,
The one you brought with you here, today,
The one you set down as a reminder,
That one bears the weight of the whole,
That there may or may not be a final stair
…….but still you keep climbing
…….because the rain falls with equal benediction on you all.

Click here to see an interview with Ms. Matuscsk.