THE POOL OF GOD

THE POOL OF GOD

There was nothing in the Virgin’s soul

that belonged to the Virgin –

no word, no thought, no image, no intent.

She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting

God, only God.

She held His burnished day; she held His night

of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.

God was her sky and she who mirrored Him

became His firmament.

When I so much as turn my thoughts toward her

my spirit is enisled in her repose.

And when I gaze into her selfless depths

an anguish in me grows

to hold such blueness and to hold such fire.

I pray to hollow out my earth and be

filled with these waters of transparency.

I think that one could die of this desire,

seeing oneself dry earth or stubborn sod.

Oh, to become a pure pool like the Virgin,

water that lost the semblances of water

and was a sky like God.

                                                                                                            (1950;1984)

                                                            Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit OCD)

                                                            From: The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers. Page 63.

                                                                         Published by ICS Publications, Washington, D.C.

                                                                        All copyrights, Carmelite Monastery, Milwaukee, WI.                                                                                                  Used with permission