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Corcomroe Abbey

If you pause
you can hear the whispered longings and wailings
carried across this threshold, the desperate cries
for healing, the shouts of praise, the stones are keepers
of these prayers, and to stand there is to feel
your heart both leap and break all at once.

The roof is gone which means this place
is no longer shielded from the elements but holds
its mouth up to catch raindrops on the tongue,
sunlight pours down and fills the space with gold.
The cawing of rooks nesting echoes off the walls,
nettles grow in corners, dandelions in cracks,
and you see this place is not a ruin, is not empty,
and you offer up a prayer, not certain who is listening,
but knowing this prayer does not live alone, but finds a place
nestled among birds and spirits and growing things.

*By Christine Valters Paintner from the collection "Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty" published by Paraclete Press.

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from Sound and Stillness II: An audio collection of poems by Christine Valters Paintner, released December 14, 2022
By Christine Valters Paintner from the collection "Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty" published by Paraclete Press.

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Abbey of the Arts Galway, Ireland

Abbey of the Arts, in partnership with The Dancing Word, produces albums to inspire soulful connection to ancient monks and mystics, to Celtic practice and tradition, to the sacred feminine, and to Earth and her creatures.

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