Crystal Saint

I wrote the original version of this poem a long time ago. It was inspired by a stained-glass window at the back of a parochial building that I passed on walks to and from my apartment. (Sorry no photo; depiction’s in the poem)


Ah, you crystal saint
Staring from your firmament so far removed –
Upon reaching this crippled Eden, your
Ecstasy has congealed to a lucid
Petrification locked in lead;
Holy brilliance
Lingering in a pool of kaleidoscopic
Purity.

You gaze as I pass, baptizing my path
With lily-drops of refraction:
A patch of temperance, a splash of
Patience, that fathomless blue wisdom. But
Oh, what subtle secrets do those
Dark and sumptuous robes enfold? To
What traditions do those frozen gestures
Pay tribute?

The milky dove will tell, diving from where
Your flat niche converges with the sublime.
And I, bathed in dappled hope, will
Taste your many-colored
Wines and partake of your
Bread of comfort til
At dusk you withdraw in mute intensity
To splendor far beyond the lengthening
Shadows, leaving me alone upon
This faded earth
To pray.