There was nothing in the Virgin’s soul


that belonged to the Virgin–


no word, no thought, no image, no intent.


She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting


God, only God.


She held His burnished day; she held His night


of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.


God was her sky and she who mirrored Him


became His firmament.



When I so much as turn my thoughts toward her


my spirit is enisled in her repose.


And when I gaze into her selfless depths


an anguish in me grows


to hold such blueness and to hold such fire.


I pray to hollow out my earth and be 


filled with these waters of transparency.


I think that one could die of this desire,


seeing oneself dry earth or stubborn sod.


Oh, to become a pure pool like the Virgin,


water that lost the semblances of water


and was a sky like God.

– Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit (Jessica Powers)

The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers  Edited by Regina Siegfried and Robert Morneau.  ICS Publications 2131 Lincoln Road, NE  Washington, DC 20002-1199  Reprint of the most extensive anthology of this noted Carmelite poet, which she approved five weeks before her death. Includes introduction by Bishop Morneau.

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