Wednesday, 14 October 2009

• Woman Holding A Balance

   Between dark and light,

  Between this world and the next,

  Between maidenhood and motherhood

  She pauses, held in balance

  Like the balance she holds.

   

   

  Her focus not the gold or

  The weighing, but the justice

  Of her scales, settling to their still

  Point in a steady hand,

  And she herself unadorned,

  A lily that needs no gilding

  But the points of light that lie

  On her veil like jewels in a crown.

   

   

  If she raised her eyes, she would see

  This luminous beauty, drop the scales,

  And, like a blushing Eve, break

  The balance and forsake

  The innocence of her task,

  But she does not.

   

  If she turned, she would see

  The Last Judgment, saints and sinners,

  Weighed in the final balance, and,

  Called to think on ultimate things,

  Lose this moment –

  But she does not.

   

  Trained on the object, undistracted,

  Patient while the instrument swings

  To its center and is still, she turns

  This little task to prayer - if mindfulness is

  Prayer – to an exercise of love – if it is love

  To be attentive to the thing at hand.

   

   

  By Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
  In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer’s Women

   

   

  Marilyn is my new favorite poet and these verses seemed to illustrate my applications of Josef Pieper's Leisure:  The Basis of Culture, Chapter IV.  Unlike the goddess of Justice, our model is not blindfolded.  She is guided by light.

   

  Ever mindful of her calling.

   

   

  Currently In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer's Women By Marilyn Chandler McEntyre see related

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