P5 - Margaret Tomkins, Untitled

Margaret Tomkins
American, 1900-1992

Untitled
1951
Tempera on paper
Gift of the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation
2006.37

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Stained Glass in the Desert's Chapel
by Jordan Forest

If the desert were a god,
I would worship from within her,
and instead of stained glass,
she would tell stories through
sage branches and the pink belly of sky.

The coyote’s call would be her hymn,
and I would sing it,
deep from the chest, neck bowed back to the moon,
the primal sound of my worship catching the wind
and touching everything on its way to horizon.

There would be nothing to confess
since nothing could hide,
and I would repent palms up,
chapped lips to the ground,
whispering for mercy with the brush.

I would know how to be silent
in prayer,
would recognize the voice of divinity
as the quiet behind the wren
and in the shadow of the yucca.

And standing still in her repetition of shadscale or cliffrose,
I would believe in eternity.
My god! I would say.
Look at the mountains
and tell me this ever began.