Stephanie McConnell – Palms

Pennsylvania poet Stephanie McConnell’s “Palms” is a work of beauty, illuminating Saint Francis of Assisi. A Catholic, Stephanie told The Dewdrop her poetry is deeply influenced by her sense of theology. “There is a tension between order and chaos, desire and having, contentment and despair,” she explained. “I think religion — all religions — are attempts to help us live at these intersections.”

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Palms

Finally, I found a boy
like St. Francis of Assisi--

with a long story and without a sword--
just that white face and those

worried, Umbrian eyes. Once,
when we walked together, I

stood beside him and sensed
I could turn slightly and see

a whole forest waiting, watching.
He was happy to walk through sunlight

falling amid leaves like rain, while
I talked my ecstatic talk, stomping.

I wanted and wanted to be like
the woods, a place he would rest in

for hours--content, a little dazed.
Instead, I was like the heavy black birds

that perched on bruised, purple palms.
I rushed to his hands when I was called,

when I was not called.