“PILGRIMAGE”

Written in Deir-el-Zafaran Monastery, S.Turkey, October 12^th 2013

Three mountains of Zafaran
Rise into the infinity of blue –
Conical peaks
Encircled by rocks –
Unassailable.

Paths wind down the saffron-coloured sand –
A barren wilderness,
Sun-parched –
To disappear among the rows
Of tended olive trees,
Grey-green:
Their shadows short and neat
Under the noon-day sun.

Thin wires that lead from tree to tree
Betray their secret of fertility:
Where water seeps between,
Unseen –
Life-giving,
Bearing fruit.

Three ‘peaks’ in one – The Father, Spirit, Son –
Reached downwards from infinity of space
To fold this strange land into His embrace.
God made Man:
Who walked this earth
And spoke the language
That now fills our ears.
A world outside our world
That all at once draws close
And draws us in –
Into the heart of pain and tears,

Of joy and glory seen:

Into the heart of things unknown –
So brief a glimpse and yet enough
To warm the heart and light the spark…
Before the curtain’s drawn
Across the Eternal Mystery –
And faith is needed once again.

But “deep down things” ¹ the water flows,
And, border-less, the Spirit blows;
Deep in the heart of this strange land
The seed was sown
Unknown, yet known;
Though thin, the thread of life
Still flows;
Though crushed, the Tree of Life
Still grows –
Life-giving,
Bearing fruit.  

Elfrida Calvocoressi

¹ from G.M.Hopkins “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”