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Thursday, June 26, 2014

Tere Sievers: "These Things A Prayer"


As a child, I had a patron saint,
St. Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower.
the saint of small things:
a washed dish, raked leaves,
clothes hung on the line,
these things a prayer.

Sometimes I remember
that my life is like all others,
the past gone, the present here,
the future, what future?
Sometimes I remember
to look for the present
under the pepper tree.

There I find a green prayer
in the rustle of leaves,
a brown one, as silent bugs
burrow in dry earth,
or white, like the cat,
stretched warm in the sun,
still, on the stone wall.



"These Things A Prayer" by Tere Sievers. Published here by poet submission. © Tere Sievers.

Art credit: St. Theresa of Lisieux as a child by unknown photographer (originally black and white).


 

1 comment :

  1. She was my favorite saint, too. I discovered her at 16--me a boy and athletic with devotion. She was mischievous, courageous and intense.
    Something came alive in me, reading her life. Something deeper even than my repressed sexuality. It is still there.

    ReplyDelete

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