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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Fast Day 43 March 29,2008 {Our Lady Of Chimayo}

Anna (and her sisters) are coming off a long winter in the land of long winters. Like we have "Indian Summer", once winter has past its prime in Anna's land, winter returns for a brief visit or two, bringing gifts of snow and ice and grey skies.
So we dedicate this poem to them.

notes:
Chimayo is a sanctuary in New Mexico. Starting from Los Alamos where the atomic age was born, descending to the desert into Espanola, the low-rider capital, to the eastern mountains wherein lies Chimayo is about 60 some miles.

Sandia is a mountain.

An acequia is a water-course or aquaduct in the desert.

Chimayo is the locus of miracles, and people who have been cured have left crutches and splints and wheelchairs there.











Our Lady Of Chimayo


He was an acequia
and she a cottonwood tree;
The Lady of the desert placed them
outside the church at Chimayo.

She:
I am rooted in the soil.
What is it to run o'er the earth?
(she looks into the distance)
I see far off within the sky
clouds as big as Sandia,
running faster than a ghost!

He:
I hear your voice in wind and leaf...
I sense small lives upon my course.
From afar, from ridge and mountain top,
I burst free to come to you!

The Lady of Chimayo who stands within
Her holy sanctuary filled with emblems
made from mankind's suffering,
has turned her and him upon Her loom
and wove their souls from cactus fiber,
so that she would not live without his blood,
nor would he flow without her need.

2 comments:

Anna MR said...

Oh Montag. Thank you for the dedication. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to have to link to this from my blog house.

Reading the Signs said...

Thank you very much, Montag. I feel I would like to visit this place - and have perhaps touched in through your poem.

We have gone right back into winter today. Much snow. It is a gift that one doesn't quite know how to receive in April.