Poem for 3/1/22 - If Poisonous Minerals by John Donne

 IF POISONOUS MINERALS

JOHN DONNE (1573-1631)

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree

Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us,

If lecherous goats, if serpents envious

Cannot be damned, Alas! why should I be?

Why should intent or reason, born in me,

Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?

And mercy being easy, and glorious

To God, in his stern wrath why threatens he?

But who am I, that dare dispute with thee,

O God? O! of thine only worthy blood,

And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,

And drown in it my sin's black memory;

That thou remember them, some claim as debt,

I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.