Little one, wait.
Let me assure you this is not the way
to gain the terminal of outer day.

Its single gate
lies in your soul, and you must rise and go
by inward passage from what earth you know.

The steps lead down
through valley after valley, far and far
past the five countries where the pleasures are,

and past all known
maps of the mind and every colored chart
and past the final outcry of the heart.

No soul can view
its own geography; love does not live
in places open and informative.

Yet, being true,
it grants to each its Raphael across
the mist and night through unknown lands of loss.

Walk till you hear
light told in music taht was never heard,
and softness spoken that was not a word.

The soul grows clear
when senses fuse; sight, touch and sound are one
with savor and scent, and all to splendor run.

The smothered roar
of the eternities, their vast unrest
and infinite peace are deep in your own breast.

That light-swept shore
will shame the data of grief upon your scroll.
Child, have none told you? God is in your soul.

** Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit – 1945

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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