Canticle of the Night Path

      Winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize

      Jennifer Atkinson

      Parlor Press

      Anderson, South Carolina

      www.parlorpress.com

      Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621

      © 2013 by Parlor Press

      All rights reserved.

      Printed in the United States of America

      S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Atkinson, Jennifer, 1955-

      Canticle of the night path / Jennifer Atkinson.

      pages cm. -- (Free Verse Editions)

      Poems.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      Winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize.

      ISBN 978-1-60235-356-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN (invalid) 978-1-60235-357-2 (Adobe ebook) -- ISBN (invalid) 978-1-60235-358-9 (ePubf)

      I. Title.

      PS3551.T57C36 2013

      811’.54--dc23

      2012037950

      Cover design by David Blakesley.

      Cover art: “Botanical 71” © Sheep Jones. Used by permission.

      Printed on acid-free paper.

      Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paperback and ebook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [email protected].

      For all my teachers

      . . . I said to him, ‘Teacher, now does one who sees the vision

      see it <through> the soul <or> through the spirit?’

      The Teacher answered and said, ‘One does not see through the soul

      nor through the spirit, but the mind which [is] between the two—

      that is [what] sees the vision and it is [. . .]

      —The Gospel of Mary [Magdalene]

      Permit me voyage, love, into your hands . . .

      —Hart Crane

      Contents

       Canticle of A

       Canticle of Assisi Rain

       Canticle of Before

       Canticle of the Bitter Almond Tree

       Canticle of Blue

       Canticle of the Bridegroom:

       from The Parables of Mary Magdalene

       Canticle of the Cherry Tree:

       from The Parables of Mary Magdalene

       Canticle with Chipped Plates

       Canticle of Clouds

       Canticle of the Crow

       Canticle of the Day Path

       Canticle of Dreams and Nightmares

       Canticle of Dust

       Canticle of the Egg in Magdalene’s

       Open Hand

       Canticle with Eyelashes

       Canticle of the Fallow Field

       Canticle of Fire

       Canticle After Francis

       Canticle of Francis, the Shepherd, and the Wolf of Gubbio

       Canticle of the Gate

       Canticle for Giotto’s Magdalene

       Canticle of Happiness

       Canticle of History

       Canticle of Hours

       Canticle of Hunger

       Canticle of If

       Canticle of the Lavender Fields

       Canticle with Ligurian Sea

       Canticle with Macaroons

       Canticle of Magdalene and the Lamp

       Canticle for Magdalene’s Outcast Demons

       Canticle of the March-Blooming

       Mimosa Tree

       Canticle on Matthew 6 in Wartime