Malcolm Guite is a poet-priest and Chaplain of Girton College Cambridge, but often travels around Great Britain, and to North America, to give lectures, concerts and poetry readings. He is the author of more than 8 books, and you can find out more about him as well as read more of his work at https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/.
The ordinary saints, the ones we know,
Our too-familiar family and friends,
When shall we see them? Who can truly show
Whilst still rough-hewn, the God who shapes our ends?
Who will unveil the presence, glimpse the gold
That is and always was our common ground,
Stretch out a finger, feel, along the fold
To find the flaw, to touch and search that wound
From which the light we never noticed fell
Into our lives? Remember how we turned
To look at them, and they looked back? That full-
-eyed love unselved us, and we turned around,
Unready for the wrench and reach of grace.
But one day we will see them face to face.