Blog Four

Pat Mora was born in 1942 and was raised in El Paso, Texas where she also obtained her undergraduate and her masters degree in art.  She is married and has three adult children. Her poems reflect bother her mexican culture, southwestern background, and religious beliefs. She especially enjoys writing stories for young readers while her poems are focused more for adults. Much of her work I have come across has had the theme of religion, specifically Catholicism. In the Catholic Church often uses saints to pray to and relate to. Pat Mora wrote an entire book of poems that are meant to be prayers to the saints. Being Catholic myself and having grown up in a large hispanic community I could really relate and identify with her style and subject. The poem I chose is one she wrote as a prayer to the saint Mary Magdalen.

Saint Mary Magdalen/Saint María Magdalena

"Her sins, which are many, are forgiven,"
Christ said, looking down at the dark rivers
of your hair, your head bowed, repentant.

For years, I thought of you as the great Sinner
with a capital S, a woman of the flesh
who made my tías frown, a paramour.

I stared at your image, at Christ's bare feet       enmeshed
in the swirls of your hair. You kneel, bow low,
bathe His feet with your tears, such sorrowfulness.

You rub the tangle of your hair although
polite society frowns that you dare dry
His feet with yourself, a beautiful tableau.

Opening your alabaster box, you apply
perfumes, sweet essences. You defy
sour mutters, kiss His feet, the righteous horrify.

Soft, your hands stroke Christ openly, not shy.
You are not tangled in the myth that flesh is evil
until men write your story. They simplify.

They say you flee to the desert, with a skull
and Cross, a wanton woman alone
in a cave, her banishment self-willed.

For years, I too thought you should atone
for smoldering, but who are we to judge you,
prim critics in our pompous monotone?