Time Is Suspended, Every Time
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Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Holy Longing,”
translated from the German by Robert Bly
Yes, Father, I have felt the grace
that flows from Your sacraments.
I want to give You everything,
but I am flawed in my longing.
This “troubled guest” remains
impatient, impure, afraid of being
misunderstood. I am too often
thinking of someone
other than Mary, Mother of God,
and Your Holy Christ Child,
my Savior. I wear thin the path
that leads to the confessional
but overplay the symbolism
of the priest’s rose-colored robe,
swishing through green Advent
wreaths. I obsess over
each prayer candle burning
into silent darkness. Maybe on
Gaudete Sunday I can
actually give You all of myself.
Couldn’t that be considered
“higher love-making” or, at least,
an early Christmas present? Must
everything about one’s body
concern burning? …sex?…sin,
purgatory? Jesus, I need grace
to fly into Your Heaven.
I want heaven,
but I need You now.
A former English teacher, Helen Losse is the author of ten collections of poetry, including A Flower More Enduring (Main Street Rag, 2021). Her poems have been anthologized in Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina, and Kakalak 2014, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for a Best of the Net award. She is Poetry Editor Emeritus for The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and a former Associate Poetry Editor for Kentucky Review. She is married and has two grown sons. A Christian her entire life, Helen entered the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday in 2015 to grow closer to Jesus.
Social Media links:
Blog: Windows Toward the World https://helenl.wordpress.com/
FB: https: https://www.facebook.com/HelenLosse/
MSR Bookstore: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product-tag/helen-losse/
