By Mary Ann Dimand
On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as “equivalent canonization”. On 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church, in recognition of “her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching.”
Hildegard hasn’t been waiting around.
Her music doesn’t stop for your processions.
You cannot form me. I am made in God.
When I am roused to build, your words can’t
stop that call. They cannot command me business
that’s solely yours, not God’s. My obedience demands
yours as yours does mine—I cannot rise
unless I hoist new order. We build it
on my flesh from plans that shine behind my eyes.
Come, sisters, dance with me! The stars are twirling,
light and darkness spiral, new words await
new alphabets. We are to draw new figures,
limn fresh visions on our unpricked, unscorched skins.
Our shadows will luminesce, will burn to season
the blaring searchlight of anointed office.
And to our songs, our veils confer a grace of richness
that is harmony. And love. And amity. And glow.
Oh, holy sister, let your path break trail for me amid
the cloistering that binds my moves, my voice. Let your insight
clear my eyes to what might be, and to what is, unseen.
And let me not forget: God’s worlds are made of dance
in dance, new figures braiding space.
Mary Ann Dimand was born in Southern Illinois where Union North met Confederate South, and her work is shaped by kinships and conflicts: economics and theology, farming and feminism and history. Dimand holds an MA in economics from Carleton University, an MPhil from Yale University, and an MDiv from Iliff School of Theology. Some of her previous publication credits include: The History of Game Theory Volume I: From the Beginnings to 1945; The Foundations of Game Theory; and Women of Value: Feminist Essays on the History of Women in Economics, among others. Her work is published or forthcoming in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Agave Magazine, Apricity Magazine, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Bitterzoet Magazine, The Borfski Press, The Broken Plate, Chapter House Journal, The Charles Carter, The Ear, Euphony Journal, Faultline, FRiGG Magazine, From Sac, Green Hills Literary Lantern, The Hungry Chimera, Isacoustic, The MacGuffin, Mantis, Misfit Magazine, Mount Hope Magazine, Nixes Mate Review, Oddville Press, OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, Pennsylvania English, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Penumbra, Plainsongs, RAW Journal of the Arts, Scarlet Leaf Review, Slab, Steam Ticket, Sweet Tree Review, THINK: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays, Tulane Review, Visitant Lit, and Wrath-Bearing Tree.
