POEMS

Irene Claremont de Castillejo

      WATER AND DUST

 
Water and dust, makers of mud;
Sun and mud, makers of brick.
Holy Church—lofty spire—
Man has built with bricks of mire.
Dust and spittle healed the sick,
Love is housed in flesh and blood;
Soul and body seeking God
Build His Church with mud.

 

      DEATH

 
Death claims allegiance.
Death overshadows all life lived.
Death is the goal, the summit of desire,
The focal point
Of burning concentration.
 
Behind the shelter of the body’s passing,
Curtain down while the act changes,
Illumination hidden from prying eyes
Of the blind spectator,
Life finds fulfillment
At the moment of annihilation.

 

 

From Freedom of the City, Outposts Publications, London, 1958. By kind permission of the author and publisher. The poem “Dumb Woman” in this issue is from the same collection of poems by this author.

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Irene Claremont de Castillejo is a London analyst. Her late husband was Jose de Castillejo, noted Spanish educator. In addition to the collection of poems from which we print three, she is the author of Numbers 89 and 98 of the Guild of Pastoral Psychology pamphlets.