Parishioner Carrie Kahler taught a class at Saint Mark's a few years ago on ekphrastic poetry, focusing especially on Saint Mark's own collection of icons. Three poems she wrote as a result of that class were subsequently published in the literary journal Image, issue No. 99. (You can view them on Image's website here, here, and here.) She has graciously offered to share them here.
After Rublev’s Trinity
Each face turned toward
a face at table leaving
always a space for
one more. An open
door to run through when someone
can’t quite make it home
on their own. Though the
wings work, humans haven’t got
them, and it’s hard to
converse from heights so,
in one hand a staff to lean
on. The other hand
ever reaches down.


After Prokhorova’s Saint Mark
There is no shadow
of turning here but there are
spaces for the dark.
Neither does the point
vanish—receding toward
a horizon of
agreement pinned to
dancing angels, instead gold
instead several
visions at once see
desk with sharp quills curved to light
like the mind on the
feet that bear good news
After The Anastasis
who’s to say here what
is not when the hand firmly
grips the bird-light wrist
the face facing Eve—
her son’s as much as Mary’s—
furrowed long and lined
on her left Adam’s
cloak billows back in the blast
of blue air He brings
the deep blue behind
Him an almond of truth that
is, heaven that is
how we grasp after
holiness when gold leaf is
too dull we go dark
witnesses crowd each
other’s ears and each gestures
and each gesture sends
your glance heavenward
you stand just beyond the first
parents just this side
of death’s doors waiting
for the pull to light waiting
to leave the late night

2 Responses
Kathy Albert
How exquisitely you see this holy imagery, Carrie! Thank you for letting us see your insightful gaze!
Donna Jenkins Fisher
You have touched me from far away but as near as though we are together-looking at the same icon in my Episcopal community, a small church closed for as long as it takes to be safe. St. Marks:
As familiar as my childhood memories returning to me as I seek consolation.