Past the Gates

by Jeffrey Essmann | October 23, 2024 1:00 am

[1]
This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is an ekphrastic based on Lu Hongnian’s “Jesus with the Woman at the Well” by Jeanna Cooper.

[2]

Past the Gates

A steady stream runs
out from the unchanged mountain
peaks and past the gates.

Beyond the city,
beyond its rolling stone wall,
a domestic task

met with peace. Her rope
slackens her attention turned
to Him, His knowledge–

Her pail rests against
the earth. Stillness amidst a
stirring, she looks up–

His hand raised in a blessing,
His translucent halo shines.

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Jeanna Cooper graduated from Thomas More College in Merrimack, New Hampshire, in 2008 with a Bachelor’s degree in Literature. She currently lives in the New River Valley of Virginia with her husband and six daughters.

Source URL: https://integratedcatholiclife.org/2024/10/past-the-gates/

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