Ave Maria on the Lake A raft full of sheep is a strange sort of temple; yet this is where the morning bell finds them, golden notes carrying across golden water in the golden dawn. They bow their heads, and pray the familiar words, recalling how the...
Bud
Within the spear’s tip
winter’s foe is curled
leaves’ lace, spring’s green world.
Red petals sleeping
in a cozy nest
soon will spring, leaping.
#withdraw2020
Perpendicular In Merson’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt Joseph’s dwindling fire sends up a fine white line of smoke into the dim sky. Perfectly perpendicular to the horizon’s dark blur, it makes a small cross, easily overlooked. But to my mind that...
The pond is a perfect mirror spreading its cloak to catch the sky’s falling image. As a woman will spread her skirt while the children shake apples down from the tree. The stars plop gently into the water plinking like frogsong, little silver specks...
The girl stands patient, her head bowed, resigned against the tug, braced against the braiding in the room’s red glow. Mother sings soft words that make no sense. The comb parts the flowing hair diving through the waves in a straight white line. The...
Someday I will travel to distant Corfu And see for myself the house that has no walls only light and shadow inexplicably dancing in planes here and there so as to suggest that maybe once there were walls or one day there might be but today if you...
Hands Before you were born I tried to imagine your hands– Wee fingers wrapped around mine. Tried to imagine your face. But what mind Could contain the wholeness of your person? Ancient kingdoms, foreign lands Were easier to fathom. Who could...
Every year I feel guilty about how my fervor slacks during Easter Week. After the frenetic week of preparation and emotional intensity and the liturgical marathon of the Triduum and the social whirlwind of Easter itself, I deflate. I want to...
(I didn’t post this last week, but it was written last Wednesday.) It’s hard to believe, looking back at my blog archives, that on March 9 my biggest concern was getting to Mass after the time change. How everything has changed. I’m...
