What follows is a “found poem.” To create it, I took lines from a story I’d read this week on Braided Way and rearranged them into a poem, leaving the words mostly verbatim.
I want to thank Mary Alice Dixon, the author of the prose piece, for inspiring this poem. Most of all, blessings on the Sister of Mercy, whose true name I don’t know. Despite advanced Alzheimer’s, she remains a mouthpiece for the Mystery Beyond All Names.
“Yesly,” indeed.
THE SISTER OF MERCY WITH ADVANCED ALZHEIMER’S
SPEAKS OF PRAYER
Phyllis Cole-Dai
a found poem*
Hear her sing
The Lady God startles
Yesly, yesly
She will come
Swept by two birds
in the season of kindness
Yesly
I am wed to being
Being in love
Being will branch
Being will provide
Being will fall to light
Swept by two birds
Order will come
Shake it
Shape it
Beauty of mercy
It will come
In the season of kindness
Swept by two birds
Yesly
The underside is captive
The praying is the going
God she lives
God she gives food
She loves
She He God
He startles
Yesly she does
The gift
Swept by two birds
Yesly Yesly
It is
And it is not canonical
She is swept by two birds
God startles
Yesly
God startles
*I gathered these words of “Sister Rose Lynn” (a pseudonym) in “Swept by Two Birds and a Rose,” posted by Mary Alice Dixon on Braided Way, August 8, 2023.
