September 2020
David Chorlton
DavidChorlton@centurylink.net
Bio Note: Back in the 1980s, listening to medieval music wasn't all that common in Phoenix but my musician wife used to play some of it and I became very interested in the culture of those distant times. I was still to become acclimatized to the desert, as I am now, so exploring mystics and others associated with the cathedrals I used to enjoy visiting when I lived in Europe was high on my list of things to do and to write about. Much has changed since then, and really old music is heard more often now. Good news for those of us who prefer desert quiet to pop culture noise!

Hildegard’s Vision

Never blinking, Hildegard
gazes at the parched
earth in July, wishing

she were a blade
of grass on the aching
hills. She faces
the sun until

her eyes evaporate
and light floods

the caves behind them.
In her skull
the wet walls turn
to steam. The snake

in her stomach uncoils
and slips into
a cooler skin

while Hildegard tears
her clothes. She pulls
the sky toward her.
The sun

is a swarm of bees.
She embraces
the buzzing fires

that carry her
to a bed of thorns and ice.

Life Addresses Hildegard

Three hours from daylight, dressing
for prayer, Hildegard
confronts a golden figure.
Life has locked the door

and blown out all the candles.
A voice is glowing in the cell:

I am a mirror among stars,
the stone at the core of the sun,
the wind’s tongue,
the nettles in your skin.
I have framed your face in leaves
and planted bindweed in your womb.

Hildegard steels her cheek
but Life merely
runs a parting finger there
and enters the coiling smoke.
©2020 David Chorlton
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