MAGNIFICAT ON CARMEL HILL
July 21, 1996
White clouds of flour the sky ground in its mill,
That awesome sky! Vast dome washed blue by rain,
That canopies Our Lady and her hill -
A single hill raised high above the plain.
And all around the colored counties lie.
Like those that Housman saw from Bredon Hill.
Ten shades of green lit from the eastern sky
The golden fields and myriad ponds lie still.
And when the sun declines to Vesper haze
We turn to Mary crowning Carmel Hill,
The great horizon of our morning gaze
Now just this arc, but framed in glory still
O Consolatrix Afflictorum, hear -
The mighty ones still rule from thrones of fear
- Al Gerwing