Our poet is Anne Symons who on Day 604 of the daily poems remembers the 14th century anchoress and writer Julian of Norwich, immured in her own small cell for decades. ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’
Julian of Norwich
Dust drops from her white veil,
slides off her shoulders, clings
to her worsted stockings. Scattered
by the bishop at Requiem Mass
before the procession to the cell
and walling in. Dead to the world.
Stone upon stone, fresh cut
and layered like herring scales
a damp smell inside the walls.
*
A pound of bread and a pint of wine,
two meals on Sundays,
water on Fridays, and fruit in season.
The clock will strike the times for prayer
and the walls will grow green velvet.
Break the alabaster of your heart
and all shall be well.
*
Outside her window the world
churns and tumbles, mothers
scold, children sing, tinkers
whistle and soldiers weep.
Sometimes they push aside
her curtain, calling for advice
and prayer. The world knows
that God is in there with her
behind the walls.
Anne Symons
First published in Obsessed with Pipework issue 83, 2018