My Pinterest Ariel’s List has today’s prompt as “alone in a cathedral”. I’m posting a twist on that today …

Today prompt is “a lone cathedral”. Because it sounds a bit forlorn but also serene and romantic. Maybe even a title of a sci-fi novel …

It brings, to my mind, Van Gogh’s “The Church at Auvers”.

The Church at Auvers
The Church at Auvers by Vincent Van Gigh.

which brings to mind a much-earlier forlorn poem …

Lapidary

i wanted to be granite, something that wouldn’t absorb the world.
i wanted to be marble, with beautiful lines
carved into a sculpture, a temple, a sanctuary.
i wanted to be quartz, or amethyst, or diamond –
found, lapidarian cared for, polished;
a cut gem set in silver,
worth being given in a ribboned gift box.

i gave myself in a gift box presented with a silver ribbon
and found I am sandstone on a cliff,
mere ice left in the sun –
dried mud.

And let’s do something a special treat today, and share a SECOND poem. This one not forlorn …

Nature Waits

Nature waits;
an escape, a sanctuary,
a barked castle,
a treed temple.

If I am overwhelmed by noisy fabrication,
overrun by concrete constructs
I slip to the serene forest as
new sun casts the sky.
I dart between silent trunks and sturdy roots
as the blue matures to a softer shade;
let my spirit flow with mountain
bathed streams, stand still among
the meditating firs, dig my toes
in like the chipmunk and the quail.

There is still industry remaking
itself somewhere, still faceless
masses hurrying to get nowhere,
where the tail-less sit and wait
until the day ends.

But in each forest, time begins with dewed breath
rising as a single note singing “here”.
Each forest leaves itself open to shelter creatures
seeking comfort and protection.

In each forest, time is remade only enough
to last the day. It is enough.

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