The Stairs at Marian Lodge

Pyramid Lake, NY

by Susan Oringel

It could have been a hundred years that prayers went up

and down this place. - Margie Bock

Fifteen blue, buckled wooden steps

up the narrow staircase named the “thin place”

in a poem framed above the stairs that you

could read as you trudged your way.

Fifteen ancient painted steps that seemed

a mountain at first glance, high and tight

with Mother Mary at the top, arms open

with downcast eyes beside a tarnished mirror

that made me a wraith.  What would I find

at the top, in my little room overlooking

the lake - where the poet claimed God

was to be found - but no, I wanted

God everywhere, in my room,

in my heart, on the blank page, 

in the women I met, in the caroling

loons, the restless trees, the gravel

paths, even in smoke from wild-fired

Canada. Especially in this thin place,

which is the place of struggle, creation,

birth, which is the place we need Her most.

~

I am happy to announce my full-length book of poems Carnevale was published December 2023 by the David Roberts Books Imprint of Wordtech Communications!