TOTAL VIRGIN

TOTAL VIRGIN

“She was a virgin even of herself.” – Père Francoise OCD

In a house of mirrors that coveted her image

she never walked

with her own beauty

nor made a feast of her goodness,

inviting friends from the far and wide.

She never sat down with her own innocence

to dialogue together,

nor called a stranger in

to sit at her hearth and be glorified.

She was a maiden promised to one lover

whom she was always seeking.

Though he hid in her heartbeat and settled himself

behind her breath,

he was distance, too.  Journeys dwindled to places

beside her own, and miles melted beneath

her steps of wanting.  She could by-pass all

meadows that trap us with their poisonous flowers

and their soliciting pools

and winding lanes that skirt the only death.

She was out on a road alone, hastening onward,

gathering  all as a gift, the small and great

fragments of mystery and reality.

Everything was for Him, even her own being.

Since love marks neither measurement nor weight

she carried all, without touching or tasting.

Life, which comes as a virgin to us all,

most safely came to her.

Time, when she passed, remained inviolate.

                                                            (1976; 1984)

Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit OCD)

From: The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers.  Page 57.

Published by ICS Publications, Washingon DC.

All copyrights, Carmelite Monastery, Milwaukee, WI.

Used with permission.