Assisi
Wind carries holiness
through stone streets,
a stray cat rubs its ruined face,
a bow on violin strings.
Rosaries hang glossy and wooden
outside a tourist shop.
They click the seconds,
counting footsteps to the Basilica.
A time lapse of clouds
amasses saints to a body,
placing beads over a bent head
to encircle a cold tilted neck.
Is it here
that God
intervenes?
Patricia Powers
Patricia Powers studied psychology and creative writing in Philadelphia and is currently a MFA candidate at Queens University Charlotte. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Bridge Eight, The Keeping Room, Locust Shells, eratio, Blood+Honey and others. She lives in Paris and can be found at www.patriciapowers.org or instagram handle @theaccessiblepoet.
Why this Knocked Taylor Out:
When I got to the image of the stray cat I was like "woah I love that" then I got to the image of the rosary and was like "WOAH I LOVE that" and it just kept going. The body bent over with clouds acting as time-keepers is so great. I don't normally go for poems that end on a question but this one felt haibun-y enough that I actually really liked it. Little godly interventions, how do we tally them? Can we?
I remember early in my MFA one of the older students was talking about how much they hated quatrains. I mention that only because I decided then to love them and I love them in particular in this poem. I also love how in the final stanza, when the questioning begins, a line falls away. This could either mean that questioning causes doubt to fall, or faith to. Either way, I think the moment is well handled.
This is my first poem up post having my son. Some part of the universe wanted me to read this poem again after having a child. Many times I’ve hoped that some kind of a god would intervene and help me to better understand my child and the world. Something has answered. Something hasn’t. This poem heard me, and spoke to me in that place.
Interview:
Why did you choose Team Taylor for this poem?
I chose Team Taylor for this poem because of the God reference and the word body!
"Assisi" could refer to a town in Italy or a saint (based on my quick googling), can you talk about the influence this (or catholicism) has on this poem?
Assisi refers to the town in Italy which I visited this past summer. It's where Saint Francis was born and died, and his remains are buried there. I grew up Catholic but no longer practice so I didn't have many expectations. But there was an eerie feeling, something otherworldly that I felt moving through the streets. I tried to capture that in this poem.
When we think about prayer in poetry, we often think about the role of God. Your poem seems more focused on the daily intricacies of life that make up a different kind of prayer. Can you speak to how your poetry addresses this?
Despite this otherworldliness that I spoke of, there were very concrete, physical images that I locked into during my visit: the cat, the rosaries and the clouds, along with the line of people moving through the crypt - I see those images again and again. Is that a sort of prayer? Maybe.