THE ABBEY OF SENANQUE

                                                        by Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard


was built in 1148 in the valley
beneath Gordes in the South of France
for monks who wanted to spend their life
in prayer and contemplation. It is made
of eloquent stone with arches upon
arches at different levels so that even
the high windows are arches, just
stone, no embellishments to distract us
in our search for grace, and is a place
where we enter the mystery of
the creation, where the past, present
and future are intertwined, and we enter
ourselves, finding an immensity
to ponder in our brief time on this earth.


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Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard (http://www.margueritegbouvard.com/) is the author of ten poetry books, two of which have won awards, including the MassBook Award for Poetry. She has also written many non-fiction books on women's rights, social justice, grief, illness, and The Invisible Wounds of War: Coming Home from Iraq and Afghanistan. She is a former professor of Political Science and Poetry, a former Resident Scholar at Women's Studies Research Center and Environmental Studies at Brandeis University.