Lanthanum 12.9

9

By that lofty, Italianate Woods-Gerry House

on the crest of the ridge (now part of RISD) –

at its very crown – stands a towering oak tree

like massive shipmast : twisted wild & sinuous

into a giant’s maze, as if by Circe’s spell.

I lingered beneath its dark green canopy

of semaphoring leaves, looking out at the city

below... old Providence, in shallow river-bowl.

Then I watched as one light cloud swelled out,

floating over the town – shaped like a hand

with blue eye in its palm.  A rainbow band

rimmed its perimeter, each hue gilded bright

with a single word – one of the 7 ancient virtues

(cardinal & theological) : Prudence, Temperance,

Justice & Fortitude; Faith, Hope & (in the violet

patch) Charity.  & then I spied, in the wheelhouse

of her wheeling house – Natasha!  Here to visit

me again, swathed in her cloudonutcar.  Henry,

she said, smiling – you’ve toured the periphery

of this great tesseract, & glimpsed (in orbit

of his mandorla) the beaming Lamb.  It’s time

to skip the third & last ring of this morris maze :

a golden cruciform circle (charted like Chartres)

where all the forms & figures coalesce – to chime

with that formless, invisible & omnipresent Lotos

floating in the heart of Everywoman, Everyman.

Diamond-hard rose compass – for orientation

of each soul (within one luminous J-cosmos).

6.18.12