Preface to ‘Parables for the Poor’

These poems and stories are written down mainly for the poor who are the dirt swept into the crevices of our social home. It may not be wise for the rich or the just to read them. They may find them too hard to understand. One or two of them have been published before. One or two were told to me by other people. But most of them came to the surface of my mind as a fish comes to the surface of the water, when I needed to explain certain matters to the poor, or to speak on their behalf.

Police and bosses are sometimes mentioned in an uncomplimentary fashion. It is the right of the poor to do this, because the police frequently rile them, and the bosses frequently want the poor to lick their arses to keep a job. When the police and the bosses reform themselves, the poor will be polite to them.

The poor are never justified, except in the eyes of God, who is prepared to tilt the whole cosmos in their favour. Why he does this only he knows. But I think perhaps he loves the poor with a burning, undiscriminating and volcanic love.

1972 (703)