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| Unicursal |
THE LABYRINTH
Written at a poetry retreat
led by Laura Boss and Maria Mazzioti Gillan
Mendham, New Jersey,
October, 2001
It
was free time during an intensive
weekend
poetry retreat
I
strolled the convent grounds
that
warmish autumn day
to
clear my head
of
so many words and phrases
so
many raging poems
about
the World Trade Center
so
many poems sprung from wounds
from
love and death
I
smiled at the sight of a nun
wearing
a black and white habit
that
grazed the russet ground
as
she gracefully raked leaves
in
a wide open field
“Sister,”
I called
“you
have quite a job there!”
She
answered, but
not
hearing her reply
I
left the path
and
approached her
She
was Sister Julia, a novice
named
for a thirteen year old martyr
Sister
Julia was clearing leaves
from
a circular brick-in-grass labyrinth
She
told me what I hadn’t known
that
a labyrinth isn’t a maze
but
a unicursal
one
path that leads to the center
and
out again
She
called it Chemin de Jerusalem[1]
a
substitute for pilgrimage
I
continued my journey
to
the old cemetery
with
its weather beaten cement crosses
and
to a nearly dry, leaf strewn pond
then
returned, because I had to
to
the labyrinth
Entering,
my spirit revitalized
as
I stepped slowly within the bricks
joyfully
reciting snippets
from
Davidic, “Songs of Ascents”
and
offering hymns and hallelujahs
At
center, aliyah!
“My
feet are standing
within
your gates, O Jerusalem”
and
recalled, sweet as honey
so
many years ago
when
they actually were
I
could almost hear the sound
of
a distant shofar
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