A Visit from Sister Kitty for World Poetry Day

From time to time, Sister Kitty appears at my office door with a poem to share. She doesn’t email it or send a link — she recites it, right there in the room. Those brief visits have become a small joy in the rhythm of the week.

With World Poetry Day coming up, I asked if she might offer something new for the occasion. She happily obliged, arriving this week with a fresh poem and, after reciting it aloud, sharing a few of the poets she loves to read and return to.

We’re delighted to share Sister Kitty’s new poem here for World Poetry Day, along with a few of the poets who inspire her. In the words of Sister Kitty, “I learned it in school. People will think we only learned sad poems in school…and maybe we did...the Irish tend to be melancholy!”

Take a moment to enjoy the poem — and perhaps discover a new poet along the way.

To Daffodils By Robert Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

Has not attain'd his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having pray'd together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you, or anything.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away,

Like to the summer's rain;

Or as the pearls of morning's dew,

Ne'er to be found again.

Sister Kitty, “I also love Padraig O'Tuama in this podcast and so do over a million other people. Try him out. https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/”

- Connie Rodgers, and Sister Kitty Stafford

images: Álvaro Serrano/insplash

AUTUMN

One by one

the leaves let go

Image: Joey Genovese/Unsplash

falling

to the waiting earth below.

The tree stands

naked

in its bereavement

tall and strong

it weather winter snows

knowing that when spring arrives

her beauty will return

clad in leaves of glorious green

a sheltering for the birds

a shade for summer’s sun.

Until October’s brush

paints her anew

with fiery reds and shimmering golds

and once again she stands

in full magnificence

yet knowing that

as the seasons change

she must again let go

and wait upon the spring.

-Sister Kathleen Lyons, csj

Counting

I’m counting my blessings

On fingers and toes

On eyes and on ears

On mouth and on nose.

I’m not nearly finished

But that’s how it goes.

When you stop to ponder

What’s good and what’s bad

You remember the good things

Not the perplexing and sad

So take time to thank God

For great friends you’ve had.

- Sr. Eileen Foran

Holy Listening

Stillness of new design

and shattered lace

give listening space and life

            to retired nurse  abused by father

                 now his caretaker

            to midlife nurse in peak of career struck with fibromyalgia

                 now single parent fighting for disability

            to grandmother, caring for two autistic grandchildren

                 now layered in her own chronic pain

            to abused child from catholic boarding school

                     now diminished, depressed and addicted

            to disassociated working mom with deaf husband

                  and adopted son with schizophrenia.

                  She, red-faced, perspiring, smiles through fatigue,

      tears up, declares, “just glad to be here”.

Unfold, unbind weary hearts,

pierce us with vulnerable tenderness

inspired by softness of breath,

movement,

as dance, transforms

creates.

Let music ripple knotted muscles

fleece frazzled thoughts,

meditate, slow down.

Trust bonds of friendship

as sacred stories re-written,

permeate unscripted edges,

oozing Divine love

in holy listening.

- Sister Patricia St Louis, csj