Doves (GP Jean Esteve)

 

(By guest poet Jean Esteve, a previously written poem revisited here on November 23, 2021. Image painted by Jean Esteve.)

Doves

Together and always

together

they arrive at my back yard,

misappearing as a solid

of feathers --

a gossimer cloud

that lands with a gutteral thud.

Each year they increase

in number

still showing themselves in a clump.

So adoring of only

one another

pitch they their camp

with a mutual heart-beat-like thump.

Do they think their unique

mutuality

excludes them from nature's true nature?

Or perhaps it's their 

singular beauty --

no creature wears better

such slices of gleam (pink, blue, green) in its sweater,

not reckoning that my 

true-heart, Spot,

whose raison d'etre's to keep me amused,

employs his long-nosed best

break-shot

wagging enthusiasm

at his shrewdest wild carom, cradle, masse, roquet.

The Lady and Her Cat (WC)

 

(from Bradi Barth’s "Evangelisation Wardrobe” series)

(Wendy Cabell, forefeast of the Entry/Presentation of the Theotokos Into the Holy Temple, and of the anchoress Saint Maxentia, and of martyr Saint Nerses of Sahgerd who refused to worship the sun. Today on the Jewish calender, Noah's ark comes to rest (2104 BC). Image from here.)

The Lady and Her Cat

(from Bradi Barth’s “Evangelisation Wardrobe” series)

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring 

to be clothed with our habitation 

which is from heaven

--2 Corinthians 5:2

The striped cat was never quite the 

same after the accidents. Hobbled leg,

battered brow. Softened eye. Good

thing the Lady took her in. Liked

how this cat never chewed the flowers or

clawed the sheets. This cat now snuggled 

on quilt as the Dove comes calling, one

cat's eye watching. The other on her Mistress'

hands to heart. Mayhap the Dove will drop His bit

of green into those hands! Mayhap those hands

will stroke striped fur and waiting soul, before the 

pounce upon holy ground. Before dinner, and 

prayers and bedtime stories, and a tomorrow

of nestled light...  

*From prompt: Write as response to a piece of art selected from those presented in Betsy Beckman and Kathleen Kitchline's Abbey of the Arts retreat Once Upon a Time in a Town Called Nazareth, November 20, 2021. Bradi Barth's image was selected, above.)

Downsizing (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, November 17, 2021, feast day of Our Lady of Zion (apparition to Alphonse Ratisbonne), Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint Hilda of Whitby (above; Saint Hilda also inspired Saint Caedmon), Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea, and Saint Gregory of Tours. The Jewish calendar today commemorates the completion of the Talmud. Image from here.)

Downsizing

The amount of information this mind can handle is dwindling. Trying not to be alarmed, escape this glitch unharmed, its lengthening string of diagnoses, physical disabilities -- Brain’s overload seeks neuroplasticity. Switch to hands, handy boundary, only so much they can hold. Currently clasped in truce, bidding “Look! how different it might be", and was: just a child, out walking with Mom, horizon real, its Heavens forever but only now in hand –

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired after hearing Micha Hamel’s "Wandering Thoughts (During a Meeting)". From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite, November 15, 2021.

Heart's Pace (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, feast day of Our Lady of Almudina (Almudina Cathedral is above), of the Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God, of Saint John Lateran Basilica, of Saint Triduana (who traveled with Regulus/Rule bringing Saint Andrew's bones to Scotland), and of Saint Theoctiste of Lesbos. Image from here.)

Heart's Pace

In the heart

where a small boat awaits,

where blue meets red

(ebbs pulse instead)

I will meet you.

You who know the way. As

my own legs give sway,

I will follow

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired after listening to Patti Smith's M Train. From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite led in collaboration with Arvid van Maaran, November 9, 2021.

Immigration (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, November 8, 2021, feast day of (above) Our Lady of Good Guard (connected Basilica has fascinating history*), Synaxis of the  Archangel Micheal and the Other Bodiless Powers, Saint William of Bourges and Blessed Isabella of France and other Saints of Evry, feast day of  All Deceased Dominicans and of All Saints of  Wales, feast day of Saint Cybi, Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, Blessed John Duns Scotis, and Blessed Maria Crucified Satellico. On the Jewish calendar today commemorates the Zachariah's prophesy in Zachariah 7-8; also Purim Teveryah. Image from here.)

Immigration

(Fall, 2021, after the funeral of my Great-Uncle Art)

My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Otten, moved from her native Germany to the US in the 1920's, opening her own restaurant. She lost it in the Great Depression and became manager instead. Throughout it all, a Rosary nestled in her apron pocket. Even during her busy workday, she'd stop right where she was and pray its beads whenever a brief moment allowed.

Our family still has one of the little creme pitchers that helped set the tables in Grandma Otten's restaurant. But the real heirloom has been a continued family devotion to the Rosary. In September of 2021 my great-uncle Art passed away, peacefully while praying the Rosary with his children. I left his funeral with a strange hope, where grief should have dwelt.

       Ascending

  Mary’s Mountain

you leave footholds.     

  

Orphaned pitcher--      

      cream rises

        to top.

*From Wikipedia: The Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Garde basilica was preceded by a chapel dating back to the days of the Christianization of Île-de-France, built in the oldest place of Marian worship in the region: according to legend, the druids venerated a statue of the Virgin there. even before the passage of Saint Denis, who explained to them that Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, and that Isaiah's prophecy (7; 14) had already been fulfilled...AA Priscus, chief of the Carnutes tribe, would have requested the statue or its replica and would have transported it to Chartres, where it would be at the origin of the Notre-Dame de Chartres cathedral. According to the canons of the cathedral of Chartres, oaks from Longpont would have been used for the framework of the cathedral, undoubtedly because of the spiritual power emanating from this place in the imagination of the contemporaries...A vestige of the mysterious statue of the Gauls would also remain; it would be embedded in the right leg and foot of the statue of Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Garde in the axis chapel, which is dedicated to it.”

**Prompted by William Seiyo Shehan’s Virtual Haiku Workshops (September and October 2021), to create a haiku after experiencing Buddist death meditation, and create a haibun on topic of choice.

Labyrinth (WC)

                        

                             

(Wendy Cabell, November 3, 2021 (written previous, see footnotes), feast day of Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Winifred of Wales (her uncle, Saint Bueno Gasulsych, is above), Blessed Ida (Judith/Gutta) of Toggenburg, Blessed Alphais of Cudot, Saint Sylvia of Rome (mother of Saint Gregory the Great/the Dialogist), Saint Snandulia of Persia, and Dedication of the Church of the Greatmartyr George in Lydia. Image from here.)

Labyrinth

Hint: I am a crossroad. It’s

not too late to learn to unwind. Leave

all that’s not kind, behind. Some

things you might find:

     -Softened breath

     -A longing for tea

     -Ears for birdsong

     -Unconscious Psalmody,

           if can only

leave all that’s not kind, behind,

knowing: there is no other

crossing than this.

*From prompt: Freewrite after hearing Wislawa Szymborsk’s Advertisement. The line “It’s not too late to learn to unwind” is a quote from this poem. From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite, September 19, 2021.