A Nun, by Sharon Tracey

A Nun, by Henriette Browne (France). Exact date uncertain, probably between 1850-1870.

A Nun

    —Henriette Browne (1859); oil on canvas; 92.4 x 73.6 cm
           Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti Bergamo, Italy


The time of day set still as stone for prayer
Nones, that ninth hour after dawn, that place
I’m looking, wimple wound around her head
Drawn to shadow under chin, the sheer black habit 
Of praying, the pages with their red rims
That long path on the way to finding grace.
Her heavy lids like louvers closing in 
On infinity. She seems a novice--
A cover girl for nuns—that parchment robe
The unity within the whole
The composition triangulated
Each shape solid and weightless, so balanced
Something so pellucid I remember
Kneeling in a pew—nave, nun, that pale light— 

Sharon Tracey

Sharon Tracey is a writer, editor and author of the poetry collection, What I Remember Most Is Everything (ALL CAPS PUBLISHING, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Ekphrasis, The Ekphrastic Review, Naugatuck River Review, Silkworm, and are forthcoming in Canary and Common Ground Review. Art and nature are recurring themes in her work. She has enjoyed a varied career as an environmentalist, policy analyst, editor and communications director. She is currently working on a series of poems featuring women artists of the past five centuries.