This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Johanna Caton, O.S.B.
God takes a rib from sleeping Adam to make Eve, Lorenzo Maitani carving, Duomo, Orvieto, Umbria, Italy
Adam’s Ribs
After the proto-surgery,
we both slept. I opened
eyes first to gaze on—what?
A softest wave-woman,
like a warm, windless sea:
glazed and deep,
and me, slowly feeling:
my mind’s ribs sailing
strangely.
Johanna Caton, O.S.B., is a Benedictine nun from Minster Abbey in Kent, England. Born in Virginia, she lived in the United States until adulthood, when her monastic vocation took her to England. She writes poetry as a means of understanding the work of God in her life, whose purposes and presence can be elusive until viewed through the more accommodating lens of art and poetry. Her poetry has appeared or will appear in Green Hills Literary Lantern, Time of Singing Christian Poetry Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, The Christian Century, Amethyst Review and other venues. She is a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee.
