for Bob and Anne
       and Brian Patrick

when i entered the cathedral
i wasn’t looking for anything

it was the sounds
that i had not heard in so long
i was after

the organ blasting

the coughs and sneezes
punctuating the drone of prayer

the chimes

the chanting

but most of all
the crying of an infant

his lungs filling
with an entire world’s
discomforts and desires

and then the cooing
of a young mother

the only holy song
i know


Daniel Grego is the Executive Director of TransCenter for Youth, Inc. in Milwaukee.  (Visit his agency’s website at  HYPERLINK "http://www.transcenterforyouth.org" www.transcenterforyouth.org.)  One of his major interests is exploring the confluence of the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, Ivan Illich, and Wendell Berry.  He lives with his wife, Debra Loewen, the Artistic Director of Wild Space Dance Company ( "http://www.wildspacedance.org" www.wildspacedance.org ) on a small farm in the Rock River watershed in Dodge County, Wisconsin.