“Gardener at Prayer”

                                 Cento

Take off your shoes here, it is holy ground.
Beauty holds court within.
O leaves of love, O chlorophyll of grace.
Here is the sacred Guest.

Beauty holds court within
to flower in pity, pardon, or sweet humbling.
Here is the sacred Guest:
fire sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim.

To flower in pity, pardon, or sweet humbling
toward acres of my nothingness,
fire sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim,
you on a wave of morning.

Toward acres of my nothingness
O Dove, O Flame, O Water, Wind and Cloud!
You on a wave of morning,
the molten language of eternity.

O Dove, O Flame, O Water, Wind and Cloud,
I called you Beauty for its fleet white sound,
the molten language of eternity.
Nothing but pain could go to meet such love.

I called you Beauty for its fleet white sound.
Divinity? And dare I guess
nothing but pain could go to meet such love.
Though God, indeed, has reservoirs of morning.

Divinity!  And dare I guess
God is not garden any more?
Though God, indeed has reservoirs of morning.
Dove is the name of Him and so is Flame

God is not garden any more.
God is a thousand acres to me now.
Dove is the name of Him and so is Flame.
Take off your shoes here, it is holy ground.

All lines of this poem are from the following poems of Jessica Powers, (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD). Each line is listed in order of its first occurrence. “On Reading Saint Peter of Alcantara,” “The Kingdom of God,” “Green Is the Season,” “The Kingdom of God,” “The Will of God,” “To Live With the Spirit,” “The Wind of Pentecost,” “O Spirita Sancta,” “The Spirit’s Name,” “Letter of Departure,” “The Wind of Pentecost,” “Heaven,” “Not Garden Any More,” “The Spirit’s Name,” “The Ledge of Light.”