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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

That probably explains it

Indwelling

A catheter, or the holy spirit—both
cannulas (whether fixed in body or soul)
a little reed, the syrinx that channels
something sacred: signs of our wet life,
breath of our unseen transformations.

We turn wine into water, play it out
through that pipe the same way spirit
turns our water to higher proof, distills us:
indwelling, a reverse osmosis of the soul.

***

It's been a busy and crud-filled week. A lousy nasty cold brought me down while I was enmeshed in Giovanni di Paolo's paintings of St. Catherine. (That probably explains the poem.)

Have a good week, all y'all.
I will, once I quit coughing.

5 comments:

Dick said...

I like very much the notion of 'indwelling', which carries a sense of Gerard Manley Hopkins' neologistic shorthand. And I like the use of physical imagery to impart a sense of the spiritual. Everything is in perfect balance and directed towards that wonderful last line.

lowenkopf said...

I'll think of you when I reread Willa Catheter

mansuetude said...

Love the juxtapositions! new windows swirling to open.

jarvenpa said...

Oh, I see you have not been here for a while, I hope it is because you are so well you are doing things to feed your spirit, not that you are ill and hurting.

Lori Witzel said...

Hey, all y'all - just madly busy, as ever, but glad to see you stopped by!

Dick: Muchas gracias, you.

Shelly: I snorked when I first read your comment, and I snork anew today.

Mansuetude: If only I could get them to open and get me outta the house more! Glad I finally played hooky and went wandering this past weekend.

Jarvenpa: No worries, my friend, just loaded with business, and some travel for business, and swamped with reading/writing for my class...thank you for thinking of me.