Tag Archives: poem

The Annunciation of Francis

The Annunciation of Francis

I did not come to him on bended knee
clutching a stalk of lilies and a message from God,
dressed in a gown effulgent as fire.

I came out of the darkness of earth
from the place where the poor creatures wait–
the claws that walk upon the pebbled ocean floor

the four legged with their strong haunches
and tremulous upright ears
long tongues unrolled in devotion or fear

the winged things who wanted their own sermon
ring doves and waterfowl
even the vultures who put aside their carcass

to sit in a circle and feed on his preaching
silent as a gathering of saints.
The loops that circled their necks,

the shackles laid across the canticle
of their bones, were rent loose by his words
till they too flew like souls.

When he appeared to the brothers of the order
as he darkened in death, I was there,
signifier of the five wounds.

I propped up the quill as he wrote: Welcome,
Sister Death, and then he lay down naked
on the earth, sprinkled over with ashes.

It was my luminous hand that held out a goblet
to catch the thick venetian red
trickling like wine from his side.

Poet: Jan Lee Ande

© Jan Lee Ande
All rights reserved

Click Here* to add your comments & name suggestions or see what others have posted for this piece

Thread of Life

Thread of Life The world hangs by a thin thread, and that thread is the psyche of man. ~ C.G. Jung We are hung, lowered into life by a thin thread, ribbon of the umbilical cord wrapped about our neck, […]

Read more

Shakti

Shakti Out of salt and marrow out of toothed vagina out of horn and chitinous underbelly out of womb and spine spring enters my body, graceful and blind and furious. On the morning of the equinox I chase the rising […]

Read more

Rot-Grin Jack

Rot-Grin Jack Once a god now a dog in this backward time pokes a head through the hedge dividing what we see from what we get. Antlers from the human dawn have been drawn into eclipsed Christian heaven, dangling the […]

Read more

Listening to Life

Listening to Life #1 The stones are held in reserve there Roots woven through them Kept secure and protected The brawny trunk rests beneath heaven Branches twisting in the direction of the sun My hand reaches out To ask for […]

Read more

Cypress, Daughter of Fertility

Cypress, Daughter of Fertility Offshoot of blood and flesh, spun off from my hip, my tattered bone. This wild iris will see what I have seen. The female flowers in silence. Birthed out of depths – rooted, entwined, sprung. It […]

Read more

Two Volcanoes

Two Volcanoes on a night of red earth the eagle scans the mountain the wild boar scents the flower of battle la llorona cobs a river of blood two lovers search for each other on their quetzal feather mat they […]

Read more

Sacred Breath

Sacred Breath Mother of days of deities in the night of the sleeping soul you rest on your carpet of reptile earth while the world has turned vile and mean Mother of daughters who will give birth to more days […]

Read more

In Search of Inner Presence

In Search of Inner Presence Once a one-eyed man showed me his empty socket — an abandoned and crushed sugar cone — tasteless in its discard. Once a glazed moon — dark and looming — crowned the forehead of a […]

Read more

revelation

revelation warm currents swirl around you sudden shifts of cold stiffen skin over and again you are pinned against the reefs fear rising like fingers of coral. you were not made for this place. you have met the eyes of […]

Read more