A Poem by Gerard Garrigan, OSB

Saint Apollinaris

     In memory of Dom Edmund Westrop 

you sent me haloed virgins
holding wreathed crowns
lamps all lit
and in procession
mosaic vestments
shimmering gold
and since you sent
that card to me
you now there among them
torch all burning bright
your own crown won
and I still here with none

Gerard Garrigan, OSB is a Benedictine monk of Saint Louis Abbey in St. Louis, Missouri. Free digital copies of his poetry may be obtained by emailing him at frgerard@priory.org.

Image: Mosaics at St. Apollinaris, Ravenna