Sister Carmen Bernos de Gasztold was a Benedictine nun and gifted writer who lived from 1919 to 1995. She wrote two books giving voice to God’s animals titled “Prayers from the Ark” and “The Creatures’ Choir.” This summer I am sharing more of her pensive poems.

God,

forever I turn in this hard crystal,

so transparent, yet I can find no way out.

Lord,

deliver me from the cramp of this water

and these terrifying things I see through it.

Put me back in the play of Your torrents,

to Your limpid springs.

Let me no longer be a little goldfish

in its prison of glass,

but a living spark

in the gentleness of Your reeds.

Amen.