Poems

The Two Priests

By Archibald MacLeish

Man in the West
Man in the East
Man lives best
Who loves life least,
Says the Priest in the West.

Man in the flesh
Man in the ghost
Man lives best
Who fears death most,
Says the Priest in the East.

Man in the West
Man in the East
Man in the flesh
Man in the ghost
Man lives best
Who loves life most,
Who fears death least,
Says the Man to the Priest
In the East, in the West.

Credits

Archibald MacLeish, from Collected Poems 1917–1982, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1985.