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POETRY
Take Heart
Raped at 5 by a neighbor a woman I know clung to an
old cloth rabbit until she was 12. Thats when her mother burned
the rabbit, while she was off at school saying to her when she
returned, Youre too old for such childish things.
Jesus, the
bits of sacred connection to which we cling are woven of such cloth
as the seamless garment of Christ was lost in a toss of dice but now
redeemed in a place where rabbit is reified in the body of Christ who
lives
re-membering; the limbs of mercy severed he
restores.
-- Judith Robbins Whitefield, Maine
Prayer of the Tightrope Dancer
Oh God of tenderness and watchful love,
You are
my balance beam, I shall not falter.
With you, my surety, I will
not fail.
-- Sr. Eleanor Fitzgibbons, IHM Detroit
Beatitudes
Happy are the marigolds, for they do not worry if
their flowers and leaves are coordinated.
Happy are the birds,
their melody is neither promoted by a company nor judged by a DJ.
Happy are the dandelions, the lowly are consistently raised to manicured
lawns.
Happy are the weeds, in their annual visit they
courageously claim their space on the planet.
Happy are you when
people judge you intellectually, racially, or by gender for God
knows what pleases God.
-- Sr. Rosemary Schmid, SC Cincinnati
Annunciation with Cat, the Renaissance
Lotto knew what the virgin would need, betrothed to a
man who could have her stoned, how only her cats alarm when the herald
landed would reassure her she hadnt dreamed it.
Detail by
detail, he imagines for us how to weather an annunciation: ribbon of sand in
the hourglass, the cats tail thin as a rats, fringe on the
girls shawl, its cord hung from an alcove nail: tethers
to the
everyday when suddenly it shatters and the only path forward is through
apparent blasphemy or what a husband may not forgive.
Hazard offers
its seeds in the lilys cup and a woman conceives the improbable as
love.
-- Karen Zealand La Vale, Md.
The Family of Man
Stranded for a summer afternoon in a city Of
strangers, and in want of human Company, I found the zoo my refuge, Its
sanded pathways filling with families: Couples hand in hand, parents with
children, Toddlers carried on shoulders for a better View down into the
busy prairie dog town, The emu pressing his chainlink fence, The icy blue
stare of the polar bears. Conversations everywhere: an animated
passage Of visitors talking a tongue not native But foreign, surround the
aviaries tunefully Talking theirs. Chatter, chirps, snarls, hisses,
Screams, words, until standing before the comfortless Turn and return of
shadowed tigers, I share Their comforting silence, padding the
flesh-torn Feathers of some forager not quick enough At exiting the bars,
shouldering each other For companionship, stranded for all their
afternoons In a city of strangers, with the family of man.
-- Nancy G. Westerfield Kearney, Neb.
1999 in POETRY
2000 in POETRY
Poems should be limited to about 50 lines and preferably typed.
Please send poems to NCR POETRY, 115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City MO
64111-1203. Or via e-mail to poetry@natcath.org or fax (816)
968-2280. Please include your street address, city, state, zip and daytime
telephone number. NCR offers a small payment for poems we publish, so
please include your Social Security number.
National Catholic Reporter, September 1,
2000
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