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POETRY
Issue Date:  March 12, 2004

POETRY

Ashes

Beneath the font of water
rests a huge bowl of ashes.
In my mind’s eye I run to it
and grab the ashes,
throwing them all over my body and
screaming
I AM DUST! I AM DUST! I AM DUST!

I tell you of my dirt and my envy and
my shame.

But even desolation eludes me
as I again take my focus from
my ashen self
and return to the font of water.
It is so much larger, it can cleanse any ash.

The mindflash is over, and
I have not moved from my corner.
Yet I am weary, slightly smudged
and I am somehow at ease in my
uneasiness --
finding perspective and keeping you
in sight.

-- Jill Maria Murdy
West Bend, Wis.

Retreat

In the yet-early light of morning
while pulling open the convent door,
I heard a cardinal sing from
somewhere out in the pines --
harbinger of God’s gift this day;
and before the hour had even passed
it came again -- the final conference
translating love song into words:
“Never -- never will I leave you.”

-- Sr. Maristell Schanen, OSF
Little Falls, Minn.

National Catholic Reporter, March 12, 2004

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