Berlinghieri, St. Francis Altarpiece (c. 1235)
Tempera on wood, Church of San Francesco, Pescia.

St. Francis Preaching to the Birds 

by Beth Houston
   
  

 Hear Beth Houston
  read “St. Francis Preaching to the Birds”
  in RealAudio format.


St. Francis Preaching to the Birds





     

—Berlinghieri, c. 1235

  
That those two pupils behind him might earn
Byzantine haloes, St. Francis preaches.
Their hands and faces leak learned concern:
The birds, alert, dark, large — Hitchcock screeches
Eerily hushed — perch like some strange shadow,
Watch like the unconscious, wait like death....Still,
Francis points out, their bird-brain may not “know,”
But they, still capable of flight, know hill
And flowered vale’s compressed formality
Like a fountain, or Christmas tree in snow,
Stylized walled tower of nested city,
Secret haunts their Creator’s breezes blow —
This closed book in my hand spells this design:
Stigmata, blood — they drink this surest sign.

 
___________________________________________
Note: "St. Francis Preaching to the Birds" is the left
center detail from the St. Francis Altarpiece.  
 

 
 
 

Able Muse