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

To Phoebe*

Phoebe,

Gentle handmaid

Of us all,

Who assisted Paul

And others

Of the early church,

…

Lines Written in the Dominican College Library

However pure this love, however holy,

I want to hold your poor flesh in my…

The Soaring Birds of Freedom

The soaring birds of freedom

Fall to the earth in yellow streams of fire,

Igniting…