Из сердца кармелитов

Poetry:  From the Carmelite Heart
Kathleen Richardville, T.O.Carm

Out of love’s mysterious longing we have found Carmel—or Carmel has found us.  And how can one express the struggles and epiphanies experienced along Carmel’s lifelong path to, as we say, the summit of Mt. Carmel,  Jesus, whose path He lights for us Himself with gifts of grace.

The Carmelite soul is a pilgrim and a seeker.  It seeks the One Who is Love, All-Love.

Suddenly the heart speaks.  For some only in silence.  For some in the artist’s medium of choice.  Perhaps an icon, perhaps a woven pattern. For some, music. For some a new page in a journal.  For some in poetry.  I am one whose music is poetry. 

Poetry is omnipresent in the Carmelite’s life.  Indeed in all our lives.  The scriptures capture mysteries with splendid imagery and rhythms, simple or symphonic, all worded in arrays of sense and sound.  Consider, for example, the recurring rhythm in Genesis:  “And there was evening and there was morning, one day”. Or the engagement of sound and sense in the psalms, as in Psalm 29 :  “The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.”  Or the voice and imagery of the desperate lover in Psalm 63:  “O God, you are my God, for you I long/for you my soul is thirsting/My body pines for you/like a dry, weary land without water.”   Or the mystical and majestic opening of the Gospel of John with its breathtaking alliteration:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  All are outpourings from the heart of mortal man inspired by the very Spirit of God.

The Carmelite heart also writes its love songs and laments in the form of poetic prayers.  Sensitive readers grasp the intimacy exposed in overhearing the poet’s words—words that suggest things that are often impossible to fully express.  This has been the case with some of our beloved Carmelite saints.  Familiar to Carmelites are the poems of St. John of the Cross who reminds us that even in stony dryness, the poet climbs the walls of a stony heart, still trusting:  “Where have You hidden,/Beloved, and left me moaning?/You fled like the stag/ After wounding me;/I went out calling You, and You were gone.” (1)

The “Little Arab”, Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified, though uneducated, expressed her soul’s voice in poetry as well:  “My heart with ardent longings/ Awaits my Well-Beloved./ I ask of heaven and all created things/ Where the Loved One dwells./ And all reply:  You’ll find Him/ In the straight and humble heart./ Oh! Thought of Him so strong! /Oh! His looks, all Love and Mercy.”  (2)

In deepest darkness prayer manifests itself in poetry.  In his cell before his death in Dachau, St. Titus Brandsma wrote: “…All trouble is a white-lit joy/That lights my darkest day;/Thy love has turned to brightest light/This night-like way./ If I have Thee alone,/the hours will bless/With still, cold hands of love/My utter loneliness./ Stay with me, Jesus, only stay;/I shall not fear—/If, reaching out my hand, / I feel Thee near.” (3)

The Carmelite heart seeks, desires,  gazes, listens to  its Beloved whether in the joy of intimacy and consolation or in the anguish of perceived absence.  During her short life, St. Therese wrote many poems that express various themes familiar to those following the Carmelite Way.  In all, the themes of love and longing permeate:  “I live by love, and so I guard/A precious treasure rare/Within an earthen vessel frail,/And cherish it with care./ No angel, I, but Eve’s poor child,/ Who hourly fail and fall;/ O everlasting arms uphold!/ Love, answer Thou my call!” (4)

As a Lay Carmelite, now 27 years professed, I, too, have sung the songs of my heart in poetry.  Sometimes the words journey to the page like the feathered seeds of the dandelion in the exhalation of one’s breath. Sometimes the themes that arise in prayer demand a formal framework, the measured discipline of classic form, like the sonnet.  Sometimes the white page remains a white page of silence…of rest…just as it is…as when we wake to find that we have fallen asleep with our prayer book in our hands.  My own poems included below are from my heart to His and now are yours.

This first is a poem that “flew like a feathered seed” and lodged in my heart during Holy Week Adoration.  Hours later, as I wrote in my journal, the vision and sweetness of Adoration resonated in me…the “feathered seed” grew from the page like this:

                                                Adoration During Holy Week

                                                     Silence, adoration

                                                     before the tabernacle

                                                     before Him.

                                                    Now, too, with the ticking clock

                                                    in the still, dark

                                                    midnight.

                                                    Deeply beautiful silence:

                                                            A time of listening

                                                            for echoes of the Triune God

                                                            in communion of One-ness—

                                                    Sensing only

                                                    yet sensing

                                                    depths of love

                                                    too profound for mortal understanding—

                                                    Yet—

                                                    sensing.

                                                            The soul witnesses,

                                                          beats as a heart beats

                                                          whose Lover is near.

This second poem is written in the form of an Elizabethan, or Shakespearean, sonnet.  There are a number of “rules” that must be followed requiring the poet to be selective and  disciplined, confining a jumble of emotions mixed with thoughts into a space of 14 lines in rhyming pattern, the last two of which summarize the main idea of the poem. Punctuation is also an element of choice.  It instructs the reader in how to follow the ideas presented—whether to stop and reflect or to continue past the end of a line until reaching the indicated stopping point.   Writing poetry often becomes a process of discovery as well as an intimate revelation of the poet’s deeper self.  The title of this sonnet reveals its theme.

                                                        Love Mystical

                                      All darkness, sin, Your loving Hand erase.

                                      Now lift my eyes to gaze upon Your Face.

                                      Largesse of Love to worship and adore—

                                      He generously gives, and still gives more.

                                      A language new within my soul resounds,

                                      Comprised of yearning, desiring, love profound;

                                      An instrument, new music, the soul brings

                                      All mine, not mine, this prayer the Spirit sings.

                                      Prayer and praise past any known on earth;

                                      By Love possessed by Love from Love new-burst.

                                      Participant, observer—both am I:

                                      To unfulfilled-fulfillment testify.

                                      How dare describe in my poor words gift given:

                                      Like Eucharistic Love—a sensate heaven.

Carmelites who express themselves in words, whether prose or poetry, give witness to the virtues and values that are foundational in our Christian life.  Since God is all Beauty, Truth, Goodness, and Unity, we use this as a measure when expressing our response to Him while also recalling the words of St. Paul in Philippians 4:8 :  “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Carmelites effortlessly make this the measure of their own words since they are gifted from such a good and great God! May our Carmelite hearts respond in love to Love using the gifts we have been given for His glory.

Note:  Poetry excerpts quoted are taken from the following source and pages. 

Drink of the Stream:  Prayers of Carmelites, compiled by Penny Hickey, OCDS, Ignatius Press, 2002. 

• (1) 126
• (2) 210
• (3) 325
• (4) 284