Pax di Assisi
In the Basilica,
I feel Christed—
as I watch a dove
encircling above
San Francesco,
winging prayers
holy heavenward,
just like his gaze
in this thin place
where serenity
settles upon me,
natural and pure
as morning mist
on hills of home.
The hush here
respires kindness—
inhale, exhale—
the breath a bridge
‘twixt earth and sky,
and faith forges
a soundless space,
a moment to rest
beyond doctrines,
the only hymn a hum
of cleansing peace,
intoning a grace
I’ll carry outside.
Danita Dodson is an educator, literary scholar, and the author of three poetry collections, Trailing the Azimuth (2021), The Medicine Woods (2022), and Between Gone and Everlasting (2024) all published by Wipf and Stock. She is also the coeditor of Teachers Teaching Nonviolence (2020). Dodson’s poems have appeared in Salvation South, Critique, Tennessee Voices, Amethyst Review, Women Speak Anthology, Thin Places and Sacred Spaces, and elsewhere. She is a native of the Cumberland Gap region of East Tennessee, where she hikes and explores local history connected to the wilderness. For more, visit www.danitadodson.com.
Amethyst Review 