Humanist Voices in Verse: “I Packed Light”

This week’s poem is by Matt Stancel. Matt lives with his wife and two daughters deep in the Bible Belt.  His book, Burn This Novel, is available at Amazon.com. It is loosely based on his year spent at a Pentecostal Christian college in 1995, and it is hilarious. He is also finishing a collection of poetry and flash fiction with a humanist voice to be released this year.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, send an email to write@thehumanist.com with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.


I Packed Light

Travel sized Crest and a brush that folded in half,
a few changes of clothing,
pictures of loved ones, their corners rounded or bent,
a red plastic flashlight like the ones I played with as a child,
and extra batteries.

I left the wafers and wine behind,
next to their recipe book-
sure I’d find something more substantial outside.