The Life of the Virgin-The Execution of Thomas More (1535)-Earth as Made
Clark, Melissa & Shorb, Michael & Smith, LeRoy Jr.
Melissa Clark " The Life of the Virgin 1. In the isinglass sky the finches form a Frieze Achaplet for the Virin's angry head. Her Oriental face is turned avvay, Her hand gripped To her side...
...The wheatstraw crackles as if ablaze...
...That this great weight was once a tiny spore Is no help now...
...yet he was not the same As he had beenv nor was that staunch companion, • His temptress and salvation, Eve...
...She pressed the wound Against His sides as if the spirit She would recognize were not long absent...
...the periwigged donors fled...
...for they Reimaadb^M the taste of apple mi the smell of sweat...
...She is planted firmly as a root...
...Hail Redemptrix...
...Her bare Toes grip the dust like one unready to depart...
...The Execution Of Thomas More (1535) Struck, the arteries lose eloquence-, Even the hooded man shudders, Tributaries of power & change Spill from the vented block T© &$ stage of i^dhood, -' Ignorance in brown fields abides, Disrupted elements congeal Across the silent nrorning...
...She who knows no man Is now familiar with the wiles of angels, The gold lace edgig Her horizon closes in The snake beneath Her foot In sin, the lilies Are oblivion...
...She holds Him up across Her aged knees and feels it, feels the ache...
...So She holds him...
...Was this, he wm&md* cm purpose and our meaning— To see the truth of falsehood and the lie Of truth, the innocence of guilt, the guilt Of Jattoc«*ice, the possibility Within the limitation, and the limits Of die dream that wounds die mind to charge the hem With hope irrational and dark as serpents, ; Yet $ea» ** apples and as beautiful as man...
...The burr will flower, stir, endure within, II...
...III...
...Tett tm h$w your god works, scholar...
...The flaws that mire Life exist 01% id outer rings of ages, Where the feint &, storm of statehood loom, where brittle destinies :S BdoHsWy contend * , * , L©Roy Smith, ft* , % * Earth as Made In A daydream on a winter afternoon y Bleak as honor, though bright with the Serpent's scales, Adam beheld the Wilderness and Eden, AM both seemed Paradise...
...The fetus' tiny Spurs are digging in Her womb...
...A candescent lightlessness is the Virgin's color Some call it blue, a fringe of luminant ftroBgh Which the dark is ever breaking...
...The angels shudder from that wrath, that grief...
...If he were the snow alone, Or gold, or sangularlly focused Into concentration, How should the unsightly, . * Beheaded body of Ms spokesmp Twitcli to a Wt btfore fiie multitudes...
...mule whose bed Is taken, an ox with folded hooves...
...Here within &is |reace ftere is ao Fttet for sorrow...
...Her Oriental face is turned avvay, Her hand gripped To her side too late now...
...The baby Is an old man, He will grow younger...
...In Ms silence She sits alone and contemplates Her son, loseph Is asleep, he is old and needs his sleep...
...The myriad of lines that thread Her flesh Are mirrored in Her Son's, but His are bloody Scored before His time...
...appropriate he who...
...He answers: 'how natural to see enlightened Men court death...
...In the dusk the weeping angels frame a tomb"Thy will be...
...She is done with youth...
...The lurainiferous glow about his whiskers reflects Her starshine, and the guilt of future painters Who felt so much taster for a woman was improper, lie angels discourse sagely to the apple-loft The animals are reduced to two...
...He will return The angels say and She .would listen had She time to spare from necessary prayers, from battling Hasty cerements in bitter aioe, useless tears...
...They are alone...
...Her uncrowned face is older now More Byzantiae...
...twfy loves ttte teee should MIow, "* . Standing ft still time among its EalteU^fflg^ii^jeiang^M^ Bte root...
...V > k" Commonweal: 716...
...he could not tell One from the other...
...Halt Redempetrix...
Vol. 107 • December 1980 • No. 23
