Recollection, Stigmata and the Burden of Faith

Five poems by Britain Rodriguez

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These five poems are the product of many years of tinkering. What emerged initially as religious frustration branched out into meditations on groundlessness, temporality, recollection and finitude. The Fall is not simply the fall of man, our origin, but the literal falling of an estate into an ocean. The estate that I have in mind which I imagine falling is the interior castle, as described by Theresa of Avila, or the four bodies, or rooms described by Gurdjieff. The marble cliffs can no longer hold.

To me, these five poems encapsulate a loss of grounding, the feeling of uncertainty, of remembering that all of life is temporary and must obey a temporal structure. The further we sink into recollection and abnegation the older we become nonetheless. Our body deteriorates and collapses. Releasement remains a possibility.

words, poems and image courtesy of Britain Rodriguez 

Britain Rodriguez is a writer and painter from Santa Ana, California. He has had works published in small journals, such as Sarka Journal, Apocalypse Confidential, The Double Dealer, as well as the Senseless Words. He has published two books, a novel titled 'Conversation Between a Priest and a Dying Man' as well as a book of poetry titled 'The Sex Life of Mussolini and Other Poems.'