Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend;
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love You, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto Your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again;
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.-- John Donne
The Liturgy of the Hours has an Appendix devoted to religious poetry; I like the poems of John Donne that are there. Reading a bit about him, I find he was an interesting man.
A day (March 31st) for him is observed by both the Anglican and Lutheran churches, which I also think is pretty interesting. He is, in the sense that those churches use the word, a saint in both those denominations.
Naturally, the Catholic church does not venerate him, but being catholic in the small "c" sense of the word, is perfectly happy to borrow his poetry and include it as material on which to meditate.