Canticle of the Night Path
Winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize
Jennifer Atkinson
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com
Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621
© 2013 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atkinson, Jennifer, 1955-
Canticle of the night path / Jennifer Atkinson.
pages cm. -- (Free Verse Editions)
Poems.
Includes bibliographical references.
Winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize.
ISBN 978-1-60235-356-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN (invalid) 978-1-60235-357-2 (Adobe ebook) -- ISBN (invalid) 978-1-60235-358-9 (ePubf)
I. Title.
PS3551.T57C36 2013
811’.54--dc23
2012037950
Cover design by David Blakesley.
Cover art: “Botanical 71” © Sheep Jones. Used by permission.
Printed on acid-free paper.
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paperback and ebook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [email protected].
For all my teachers
. . . I said to him, ‘Teacher, now does one who sees the vision
see it <through> the soul <or> through the spirit?’
The Teacher answered and said, ‘One does not see through the soul
nor through the spirit, but the mind which [is] between the two—
that is [what] sees the vision and it is [. . .]
—The Gospel of Mary [Magdalene]
Permit me voyage, love, into your hands . . .
—Hart Crane
Contents
Canticle of the Bitter Almond Tree
from The Parables of Mary Magdalene
from The Parables of Mary Magdalene
Canticle of Dreams and Nightmares
Canticle of the Egg in Magdalene’s
Canticle of Francis, the Shepherd, and the Wolf of Gubbio
Canticle for Giotto’s Magdalene
Canticle of the Lavender Fields
Canticle of Magdalene and the Lamp
Canticle for Magdalene’s Outcast Demons