Buried Treasure

Miserere Nobis

I was reading at Paula's House of Toast a poem she wrote with this passage:

"Their song, halfway
between a boatman's yo and ho,
part miserere nobis, part deo gratias,
hovers on the wind."

Miserere nobis means (God,) have mercy on us. Deo gratias means Thanks be to God. Even though I am thoroughly familiar with the phrases from singing Latin in choir, I had to look the translations up. I am ever more grateful for the internet and my ability in my dotage to easily research stuff.

I shall add that Paula is a medical doctor who lives and practices back east and is a remarkable photographer of the humbler aspects of nature found around her in her neighborhood. I have followed her blog from the first, having found it via Lucy in France who suggested Dale here in Portland. I found Paula listed on his site and fell in love with both her photography and her unabashed expression concerning her religious practice and other things.

Miserere Nobis

To me that was too great to pass up, so I wrote a haiku there in reply. Then I took that haiku, the first three lines of this poem and added the next nine lines.

Buried Treasure

If you remember
anything from this sermon
let it be "yo ho!"
taken from pirates
as they gather their booty
for burial under
special marked boulders
and draw their maps together
while they look askance
as if under threat
and I imagine they are
just that, wouldn't you?

‎December ‎26, ‎2011 3:02 PM