I had a college roommate who wore a St. Christopher (second or third century A.D.) medal around his neck. The saint, who lived in the second or third century A.D., was the patron saint of travelers. He wasn’t Catholic, but he was quite fond of his medal, claiming it protected him when driving to and from college, about four hours one way. And then he read that the church had dropped St. Christopher’s annual July 25 commemoration. A reorganization of the church calendar had been undertaken, and relatively recent commemorations were dropped. The one for St. Christopher had only begun in 1550.
My roommate was mournful. “I’m still wearing my medal,” he’d say, “but I guess I have to call him Mr. Christopher now.”
That story of “Mr. Christopher” came to mind as I read Saints Of: Poems, the new collection by Lisa Marie Basile. She, too, has saints for whom there are no annual commemorations. These saints have no official days, and, in fact, don’t even have names. But they are titles for poems, and every title is something familiar.
Some Tuesday Readings
Blessing for Sound – poem by David Whyte.
Gaze Out the Nearest Window – Luke Burgis at The Free Press.
Paradise Lost Sold for £10: John Milton’s Transformational Literary Sale – Jason Clark at This is the Day.
Blackwing – poem by Donna Hilbert at Every Day Poems.
“Dream of an Old Fox,” a ballad by Seiji Hakui – Steve Knepper at New Verse Review.
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