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

Parting

Let the air be taken from me;

Let no water touch my tongue.

Though my…

Old Age

Accept the wind —

Insanity would fight it now.

It is no angel to be…

Prayer after Communion

Body, flesh and blood, feeling.

I have been here before, kneeling

in the snow, in…