Jeremy Gregg, A Fundraiser's Confession

Jeremy Gregg who raises money for Dallas Central Ministries:

I’d rather be the anonymous box of fruit pulled from the vineyard;

I’d sooner be the stone that grounds the wheat pulled from the chaff;
I do not want my name and title hung upon a lanyard;
I prefer to be the trough than the blade that piths the calf.

Let board members bend their bows one last time, aimed at me:
my back is stiff and bent from rowing; my planned gift waits for thee.

Biblical influence, no doubt, but by way of Gerard Manley Hopkins, maybe? In any case, "the blade that piths the calf" - is he talking about philanthropy, social capital markets, a real job, or what? As poetry, I can't make it yield common sense and so read it over and over. I mean, what is this about it being his planned gift? How are the board members so ungentle? And is the "he" Jeremy or the one who sent him?

Comments

[Manlier than Gerard?]

As Plato would say, "We must kill the poets first."

[phil]

To keep peace in the Kingdom, no poets.

[Humdrum Calliope Needed]

paradise lost could be found, some have mused.