Most of Evelyn’s poetry was written during classes she took. However, her Detroit priest sometimes asked her to write on a particular Gospel or Scripture, and he then used it in his homily.
A MEDITATION
ON THE GOSPELS ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE
The earth knew.
His feet touched her
And she trembled like a morning star.
The grasses knew,
And the moving waters.
The flowers knew,
And myriad birds breathed His breath
Until the air burst with their singing.
The sycamore tree
Swung in its mystic space,
And a little man grew tall
In the radiance of His speaking.
The little children knew.
He touched them
And they wore His grace
Like dew upon their heads.
Only His apostles didn’t know
That He was God.
Composed by Evelyn Coffey
for Ascension Thursday
May 9, 1991
Evelyn was aware that the separation between the human and the divine was a wall built by us, and not God. Like the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, her poetry removes that separation, inviting us to "Find God in All Things" as the Jesuits say. What a shame that so many "religious" people put up this wall, mend the curtain torn when Christ died, the curtain in the temple that kept the people from entering the place where God was. Evelyn was Ronald Reagan to our Gorbachev, telling us all to "Tear down that wall!"
ReplyDeleteBut there is in this poem a rich, powerful image of Mystical Union, an erotic, spousal connecting with God that is the ultimate joy for the mystic. "His feet touched her and she trembled like the morning star." Evelyn smiled like the Mona Lisa. She too had a lover. Only the "religious" people didn't know that He was God.