Visiting Poet

Visiting Poet

Paul J. Willis

Like the disciples, I have entered another village,
stopped for the night. People listened,
I learned their names. Then I went home,
and some of the names came with me.
That, for now, is a good enough portion.

As we sat together in a chapel,
our feet rested side by side,
wanting to touch, to impart the places
they had been, to recall the dust,
the blisters from our separate years.

That is why we say it was good
to be together—needful, in fact.
This one thing, needful.

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Paul J. Willis
Poet & Novelist

Paul J. Willis is newly-retired from his position as Professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. His newest poetry collection is Somewhere To Follow (2021, Slant).

Photography by Mindspace Studio