perfect loveliness

St. Francis and the Sow

by Galway Kinnell

 The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;

 though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;

 as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, 

 and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
                the tail,

 from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
                and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
                                                                    

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The every so lovely Kathryn of Kathryn Kaye Photography has a new etsy shop!

If someone wanted to make me a very happy Helen they would purchase this 

beautiful piece of art for my birthday <3 (oh, or this!) 

Here are Kathryn's other links:

blog (a bazillion photos so striking you won't be able to stop looking until there are no more left to see) 

facebook be the first to know when she makes a new blog post or has a promotion going on!