Winter Labyrinth – a poem by Lizzie Ballagher

Winter Labyrinth 
-in the garden of St Rafaela Mary’s, Pennsylvania

Slow turns of a labyrinth
over chips of marble, quartz & sandstone:
the outer curve is all a clamour;
the next & the next a strange dwindling down
to quiet easement—a new rhythm.

Below, on sand, the pearl perfection
of ridged shells—scoops of baptism—
sprung open to God’s sky, receiving 
the washing, washing of His rain—
His reign.

I am come to this moment, this sole time—
this soul time—to where I loosen 
clenched fingers, clamped jaws,
the tongue pushed tight against my teeth ...
to where I let weight seep away: in slow steps

shed heaviness, unwind the hard coils
of my heart … just as the beech above me
has let all its leaves to loam;
and as water at the centre
lets even loss itself drain down.

Drawn by gravity as fierce as lunar pull,
thin rivulets here run to ground
as if from Moses’ stricken stone— 
the granite from which unlooked for mercy wells. 
This rock stands steadfast at the centre—

simply—dwells …

note: This poem honours the creative work of the nuns who built it at their convent, St Rafaela’s Center, in Haverford, Pennsylvania. 

One of the winners in Ireland’s 2024 Fingal Poetry Festival Competition and in 2022’s Poetry on the Lake, Lizzie Ballagher focuses on landscapes, both psychological and natural. She was a Pushcart nominee in 2018. Having studied in England, Ireland, and the USA, she worked in education and publishing. Her poems have appeared in print and online in all corners of the English-speaking world. Find her blog at https://lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com/