Curtain Call (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, March 31, 2021, Holy Wednesday, feast day (one of them) of the above Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, and of Saint Innocent Apostle to the Americas, and Saint Joseph the Patriarch. Image from here.)

Curtain Call 
(after Molly McCully Brown)

The rule [of Saint Benedict] takes me back to something early, primal, and universal. --Esther de Waal's address to the Illinois Benedictine College Community, 26 April, 1995

Lace guardians,
so patient you are.
Roseflow braiding
hospitality, simplicity, peace.
Work, study, holy leisure. Weave
of rose into lace into room which
awaits. All this time silent. All the better
to cradle, I suppose, this longing for
holiness
   of
home.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Molly McCully Brown's Transubstantiation, notice something in your environment you don't usually give much thought to, allowing yourself to be curious about it, to bless it's being here and to let emerge what you love about it. From Mindful Poetry March Gathering, March 31, 2021.

Memento Oriri (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, March 5, 2021, feast day of the (above) Nurturer Icon of the Mother of God. Poem spurred by Ruth Jaffre's Quarantine Write-in (Hugo House, Seattle) prompt to reflect on Octovia Butler's qoute, "All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only thing lasting is Change". Also inspired by Kayleen Asbo of Mythica's current symposium (Mary Magdalene and Holy Week: Ideas to Lead Us From Grief to Joy), as well as current engagement in Abbey of the Arts' Lent Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers.)

Memento Oriri*

 

         

Now I am revealing new things to you,

things hidden and unknown to you,

created just now, this very moment. 

--Isaiah 48:6 

Flow, slow go. As sowers know. 

Plants, creatures, rivers, 

no two same moments know.

See yon butterfly circle,  

each round's a new name. 

Births colors sublime, through

soft slide of shade.

Flow, slow go. As sowers know.

Plants, creatures and rivers

no two same moments know.

* As a partner thought to the Latin memento mori (remember you must die), memento oriri remembers rebirth.

Oriri is the present active infinitive of Latin orior, which stems from the Proto-Indo-European (H)r̥-nw-‎; "to flow, move, run" (see also Middle Irish rian,  "river, way"; and others). As a verb it becomes: I rise, get up; I appear, become visible; I am born, come to exist, originate (compiled from Word Sense). 

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Octovia Butler's quote, "All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only thing lasting is Change"; from Ruth Jaffre's Quarantine Write-in (Hugo House, Seattle). Also inspired by Kayleen Asbo of Mythica's current symposium (Mary Magdalene and Holy Week: Ideas to Lead Us From Grief to Joy), as well as current engagement in Abbey of the Arts' Lent Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers.