Volume > Issue > Pietà

Pietà

A POEM

By Sister Claude of Jesus, SNJM | November 1983

“Does the darkness cradle thee Than mine arms more tenderly?”

— Willa Cather

….I know but one thing

You grew

And grew

Standing forth

Tall…taut

Pain wrapped you

Beyond my heart’s fullness

You are lying across

My lap

I who gave you birth

Now cradle you

In the motherness

Of me

Turning

“Alas, I cannot find my God,” Man said

Blind with seeking, all but garroted

By…

To Phoebe*

Phoebe,

Gentle handmaid

Of us all,

Who assisted Paul

And others

Of the early church,

…

Failed Species?

For twenty million years or more

This planet fed the Dinosaur.

It makes you sit…