Summer Storm

(St. Pachomius Skete)

Afternoons like this can never be long enough –

We wait on the porch for the promised storm,

Beneath the booming of Ozark thunder,

Wait for the wind to push the torpid air

From us, disperse the sour humors drawn out

By poultice of stillness. The hardwoods begin to wave

Their many arms. Their papery tongues rasp

Benedictions – peace – out here

Where the warring world does not intrude.

I sit here on the stoop tying chotkis,

The heart’s notebook open wide to record

This otherworldly realm of quiet and prayer –

God’s eye, still and blessing still, in the middle

Of deepening world storm and every soul storm.

Poem is copied with permission from Endless Winter Nights at Monk’s Lagoon, by Mother Macaria Cobett, an Orthodox nun in the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica. Mother Macaria lives at the St. Xenia Metochion in Indianapolis, Indiana. She manages the St. Seraphim Orthodox Bookstore affiliated with the Joy of All Who Sorrow Orthodox Christian Church in Indianapolis. Endless Winter Nights at Monk’s Lagoon is available from this bookstore. Call (317) 637-1897.

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