For your work, you had light—
as much as could be gathered
in that northern isle—and color
under the too-often colorless sky
In scriptorium silence the passion sang
from within; steady hand, pattern-vision
as much a gift from above as the word
you enwrapped for all the world
The times cannot have been so dark—
vellum glows with intertwinings
of lapis, vermilion, shimmering gold:
revelation for centuries of souls
If you’d like to gaze at pages of this amazing manuscript–probably created in Scotland circa 800 A.D.–find it here in Trinity College Dublin’s digital library.
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Oh wowza, isn’t this gorgeous!
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You are too kind. 🙂 I had such a hard time with this…the book is truly too beautiful for words.
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I’m almost sure I’ve heard a reference to it somewhere before, but my memory’s so awful that I can’t recall where or who–so, I may do a bit of research now, see if I can shake loose some brain cells!
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I am amazed by this poem. I do love the last stanza:
“The times cannot have been so dark—
vellum glows with intertwinings
of lapis, vermilion, shimmering gold:
revelation for centuries of souls”,
and especially the last line… thanks for sharing such graceful words.
Kind regards from France
FGM
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Thank you for visiting, and for your very kind words.
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