by Christine Valters Paintner
The old man hobbles down the road toward the monastery gate, rests on a roadside stone, hears clip-clopping of hooves approach and his faithful companion arrive. The horse nuzzles Columba’s shoulder, shudders all down his white length eyes glisten round and brown, great teardrops pool and drop sounding like rainfall. Columba rests his forehead against the horse’s broad skull, closes his eyes and each imagines the other, galloping together across heather and buttercups. The horse knows his dear friend will soon be leaving and mourns this coming loss, his hoof scrapes the ground, tries to write a word of goodbye, then takes wildflowers in his teeth, extends them to the saint, as if to say his life was full of beauty and color, but the petals are already wilting in the summer sun. The wisdom of the old sages rings, “remember you will die” and on another day this would prompt Columba to celebrate the gift of a new morning, but today death is as close as the horse’s warm nostrils, he knows everything must come to an end, even this love, Columba rests there a long while breathing in scent of fur and fields, lets his cloak be soaked with tears.
Christine Valters Paintner is a Benedictine oblate living in Galway, Ireland with her husband where they lead pilgrimages to sacred places. She is the author of twelve books of nonfiction on contemplative practice and the arts and her poems have been published in journals in the U.S. and Ireland including Tiferet, Anchor, Presence, Spiritus, and U.S. Catholic. Her first collection of poems, Dreaming of Stones, was published by Paraclete Press. Her latest poetry collection is “The Wisdom of Wild Grace” from Paraclete Press. You can find more of her writing and poetry at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
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