Day Sixteen Leafy Glen

October 19, 2010

Met with Fr. Shaun O'Neal, a priest from the diocese of Chalotte on a visit to NYC. The Cherokee reservation is in his parish. He said that the vestments that we made for him, apart from the beauty, comfort and reasonable price, had a happy effect on the Cherokees that knew that the fabric is made by indigenous people in Guatemala. The vestments are an emblem of assimilation with being erased. Fr. Andrew

These sonnets began on October 1st and are a way to tell history in the form of a love poem. I am using terza rime, which Dante used in the Divine Comedy. Allen Tate said you can live without poetry, but you cannot live well.

Sixteen 10/16/10

Back at Adam and Eve’s discussion

centered on that odd tree, half

gold-perfect half hard to mention

For the blame of who did the math

that said taking that damn apple

would not end up on this shattered path.

Eve holding her breasts in example,

the private misery “Does he even love me?”

drips the bitter milk from the nipple.

His interest wanders, can he move the

boulder for some good and not just

out of the field. It rolls and hits the tree.