For Ash Wednesday, a favorite poem.

To Keep a True Lent

Is this a Fast, to keep
  The larder lean?
  And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
  Of flesh, yet still
  To fill
The platter high with fish?

Is it to fast an hour,
  Or ragg’d to go,
  Or show
A down-cast look and sour?

No: ‘tis a Fast to dole
  Thy sheaf of wheat
  And meat
Unto the hungry soul.

It is to fast from strife
  And old debate,
  And hate;
To circumcise thy life.

To show a heart grief–rent;
  To starve thy sin,
  Not bin;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Related posts:

1. Jim Martin on Lent
2. Give up for Lent
3. Online Lenten Retreat
4. Carnival
5. Lent is important – 4