Cresset Stone* There’s the stillness and the flicker quivering into the cowled dark. It sparks in hollowed spaces hallows them over again. There’s the meeting and the passing. It lights the liminal the crossing places pilgrim pathways communal or lone. There’s the waiting and the pressing on. Poignant as a kyrie that rapiers to rafters it strives to reach beyond its deeps. There’s the holding and the letting go release from steadying stone to uncertainties of flame tongues that seek new speech. There’s the lasting and the fugitive. Let it show you how to feel your way with fire earthed hands learning to cup light.
*A block of stone scooped into hollows holding wick and tallow, used during the medieval period to illuminate monastic rites such as matins, as well as dark passageways and dormitories. The largest example in the British Isles, comprising thirty cups, is displayed in Brecon Cathedral in Wales.
Alice Stainer is a lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing on a visiting student programme in Oxford, UK, and is also a musician and dancer. You can read her work in Black Nore Review, Atrium, Feral Poetry, After…, The Storms, and The Dawntreader, amongst other places. Recently nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize and the Forward Prize, she is in the process of submitting her debut pamphlet. She tweets poetically @AliceStainer.
Amethyst Review 