Faith

For centuries, an order of Japanese monks 
chose one of the elders to deliver prayers 
to the island of an important Bodhisattva. They set 
the elect adrift in a shrine shaped like a coffin 

with a month of salted fish, rice crackers & water 
while brothers on shore kept watch for signs of panic. 
In many cases, the sacrifice tried to row home 
but the others turned him, shoved him back 

into the sea. A mirror of human existence: 
each of us sent to beg forgiveness from whichever 
gods we recognize while death patiently paces 
the sky. As darkness swallows the world, imagine

the cry of gulls, glimpses of a distant horizon, 
the slow groan of the casket atop the waves. 

Copyright © 2023 by SM Stubbs. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 13, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“I’ve struggled with faith in any form, secular or sacred, throughout my life. So, when I read about the monks of the Fudarakusan-ji temple and this end-of-life ritual, I became fascinated by the deep commitment to their beliefs and imagined what it must have been like to put themselves in that position. I took a stab at evoking the experience—what they saw plus the overwhelming terror and peace—during this final demonstration of faith, and wondered whether I believe anything as completely as they believe in the Buddhist paradise.”
―SM Stubbs