an anonymous poem found in a Winona, Minnesota campground

Another found poem, plus commentary by the poet, discovered at the Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey. An audiobook of read poetry.

POETRY IS PRAYER, it is passion and story and music, it is beauty, comfort, it is agitation, declaration, it is thanksgiving, Some poems are radiant and oracular, some are quiet and full of tenderness, like a letter written to a friend. Often poetry is the gate to a new life. Or, sometimes, the restoration of an old world gone. It brings new thoughts or the welcome remembrance of old ones. It offers simple pleasure, complicated joy, and even, at times, healing. Poetry does not work for everyone, but works for the many who open themselves to it. As the world changes from the long winter into spring, and everything takes on a freshness and a spiritual meaning, just so poetry can quicken, enliven the interior world of the listener.

At Blackwater Pond by Mary Oliver

At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled
after a night of rain
I dip my cupped hands. I drink
A long time. It tastes
like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold
into my body, waking the bones. I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
‘oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?‘

It shall scarce boot me
To say ‘Not guilty’: mine integrity
Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so received. But thus: if powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,
I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush and tyranny
Tremble at patience.

–Hermione from “Winter’s Tale”

The mystical body of Christ as defined in “A Tale Told Softly: Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Hidden Catholic England” written by Robert Morrison