Poems from a Very Long Prayerbook(TM)

After hours and hours immersed in the Very Long Prayerbook^TM from the 16^th century that I’ll be speaking on at the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo this year, I thought a little leavening -- something that WASN’T a description of lines (Curved? Straight? Red? Black?), crosses (marginal, interlineal, in-line, red, black) and prayer structures -- was in order. As yeast is to bread, so is poetry to the brain, right?

So here’s to Sunday’s completion of the (urrrrrrrrgh) 871-line data table, which should provide me delights in the week to come.

For now, here’s a glimpse of what’s been on my mind, translated into end-of-work-cycle poetry:

LIMRICK

There once was a scholar at work
Who thought that her scribe was a jerk:
She’d no sense of style
And her hand? simply vile
But still, to have data’s a perk!

CINQUAIN

Circles
Drawing the eye
Calling out what matters
Attending to the audible
Now mute

TANKA

End-of-line spaces;
Overlining weighty words;
Rubrics and titles
She wants us to understand
And care for her chosen prayers.

Back to the prayerbook tomorrow. Today, though, the data table can rest -- and so can I. Is that the garden I hear calling?