For the Artists of the Monastery

by Joan Offenburger, OSB
10/8/02

For Helen (Sister Helen Buening)

Untitled I

Helen –

You called your retreats
“Clay and Fire”

Reminding yourself
And us
That our clay
Has beginning
End and
New beginning
Transformed
In Love’s kiln
By Spirit’s fire

Clay’s firing
Draws from earthen depths
Beauty once unseen

Untitled II

In Potok’s novel
The old art master
Says to Asher Lev
“That is an eye painting,
Not a hand painting”

The seeing eye
We pray for
Plead for
“Lord, that I might see…”

Atchison’s Picture Lady
And the children
Help each other
See the world
With rinsed eyes
That take in
Form and structure
Light and color
Guided by their inner light

She shows them
That hand follows eye

They mold and shape
Faithful to their sight
All sorts of matter
Allowing us to see
The new world
We live in with them
With all its
Splotches and dribbles

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