ALL HALLOWS EVE

Photograph courtesy of Petr Kratochvil, Public Domain Pictures.net.

Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite,
All are on their rounds tonight;
In the wan moon’s silver ray,
Thrives their helter-skelter play.
Joel Benton

♥

With a nod to Clement Clarke Moore and his poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas:

·

ALL HALLOWS EVE

by

Jamie Dedes

‘Twas All Hallows Eve, and all through the house

Every creature was stirring, even our pet mouse

Oh the pumpkins were carved with very great care

In the hope that trick-or-treaters soon would be there

The children were agitated, not one in his bed

As visions of sweet treats danced in their heads

Dad and I in our costumes and me with my cap

Had settled by the door listening for the first rap

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter

We sprang to our feet to check on the matter

We threw open the door to offer our sweet stash

While witches flew by, all glitter and flash

And the moon on the rise and the dark ground below

Gave lustre and bluster to ghosts on the go

Then what to our startled eyes should appear,

But a miniature ballerina among goblins, one bear

Now, Alice! Now Ernie! Now Jimmy! Now Chris!

Come little Tony, big Brandy, and Trish

To the top of the stairs, don’t any one fall …

Now dash away dash away dash away all

·

To those who celebrate: best wishes for a spooktacular Halloween!

© Jamie Dedes, 2010, 2011 All rights reserved

ECCO PANIS

“Where is God? Wherever you let him in.” Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk, Poland 1787

ECCO PANIS

by

Jamie Dedes

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti …

Clad in blue-gray woolly plaid, black oxfords

and pressed, pristine white uniform-blouse

on the morning walk from the dorms to the convent

past the apple orchard, now ripe and dropping its ruby fruit

past big-eyed, benign cows gently lowing

walking briskly across that green pasture land and then

into the greener wood rich in conifers and

piney detritus that crunches amiably under foot

in single-minded pursuit through that adjacent wood

and on to Sister Mary Francis, the kitchen, bread.

… we therefore beseech thee, O Lord, to be appeased, and to receive this offering of our bounden duty, as also of thy whole household …

The romance was not with bread to eat,

but with yeasts to proof, batters to mix,

and dough to knead, and rest, and grow -

that beautiful, mystical living thing you have

before the baking and dying into bread, and with

the clanking music of wood ovens firing up, pans crashing

the rythmic swish and sway of our silent community

punctuated by the clicking of Sister’s rosary as she

monitors the students and novices at bakers’ tables.

This the sacred work of those wholly hours before Mass and school

and the busy business of music lessons and art classes and

the methodical ticking of Liturgical Hours until finally Compline, sleep and

the contemplation of that final sleep and dust-to-dust.

And this being Tuesday, the day to commemorate St. John the Baptist,

and the day to bake our bread for the week to come.

…order our days in thy peace; grant that we be rescued from eternal damnation and counted within the fold of thine elect. Through Christ our Lord …

The next bake day, Thursday, commemorated to the Holy Apostles.

Oh, palpable Presence, we work in the silence of Adoration

preparing the wafers for seven days of Masses.

In a solemn alcove used just for this,

we mix pure white flour, salt, and holy water blessed by Father Gregory,

then the fragile process of baking on baking tongs

silvery antiques, a hundred or so years old.

… which offering do thou, O God, vouchsafe in all things …

The last and lesser thrill:

receiving the now Eucharist and knowing it was formed by my own hand.

…to bless, consecrate, approve, make reasonable and acceptable

that it may become for us the Body and Blood of thy most beloved Son,our Lord Jesus Christ…

Friday, The Cross and Theotokos (Mary)

mother of both God and man, Divine and human.

A woman, like me, baking bread in womanly tradition.

…who the day before he suffered took bread into his holy and venerable hands, and with his eyes lifted up to heaven, unto thee, God, his almighty Father, giving thanks to thee …

Mysterious.

Numinous.

A lifetime ahead to figure it out …

Ecco Panis.

Take this Bread.

… he blessed, brake, and gave to his disciples saying: Take and eat ye all of this…

from the pastures and the woods, from the sky and stream

from nature’s great cathedrals, everywhere present

… hoc est enim Corpus meum…

for this is my body

Amen.

·

·

© poem ~ Jamie Dedes, 2011 All rights reserved

 Photo credit ~ courtesy of Fisheaters.com via Wikipedia. It is a photograph of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1770 – 1867) painting, Virgin by the Host (1852)