“here is the church here is the steeple / you were looking for saints but you only found people”

For Poetry Monday, some self-indulgence. Cut for length:

Cathedral Close, Larry Hammer

Too close, and you see nothing—old
        pale limestone, quarried
    with smoothness rocks forget
and fleck to worn grains, weather-worried
        and rough to hold
    against your palm. And yet

( too far, you see too little )

First drafted in my mid-twenties after hiking through slot gorges in Canyonlands National Park, based on memories of growing up a 10 minute walk from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and revised over the next decade (after a visit to confirm details).

---L.

Subject quote from Best Guess, Lucy Dacus.