The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing “Cathedral of the Poor” by Frankie McMillan
Cathedral of the Poor
Gaudi watches his father tend bees,
draws the shape of hives,
the pillars of Sagrada Familia
smoke pours
from a wooden box, his father rises
around his neck are baubles
seeds from the magnolia tree
Is there any better structure
than the trunk
of a human skeleton ?
But look
here is the four armed cross
the breath of the glassblower,
the ceramicist, ironmonger
Here is work, long as the prayers
of a Bavarian priest
Here are the trees that grow in the nave
the helicoid columns
the bees in his father’s hair
.
© Frankie McMillan
Reproduced here with permission.
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Last Thursday, I was delighted to attend the launch of Frankie McMillan’s second poetry collection, There are no horses in heaven, published by Canterbury University Press. Cathedral of the Poor, which I first featured on May 21 2013 as part of he ‘poetry in response to a work of art’ (aka ‘ekphrastic) Tuesday series, is included in the new collection so it seemed the right time to refeature it again.
Last week, as guest editor on the Tuesday Poem Hub, I highlighted more of Frankie’s poems, which have been described as “surreal”, “faux-naif” and “full of surprises that quicken the heart as well as the head.”
To check out the feature, click on:
Tuesday Poem Hub: Frankie McMillan
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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.
lovely. I really like the idea of a holy family of bees, and how sacred images work with the hive.
And the way his father as beekeeper weaves through the cathedral ‘story’…