Leonore Wilson has two books of poetry, Western Solstice and Tremendum, Augstem. She has been nominated for a Pushcart three times. She is on the MFA panel at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. She has taught at various universities and colleges in the greater Bay Area.



"Magdalene II"

       After the painting Noli me Tangere by Giulio Romano

by Leonore Wilson


She was made of a body

that cried for itself, an island

with the beauty of understanding

and of nostalgia pleading

dove of muscle, of luminous roughage;

think of her as your sister

at the edge of the field

where pink and yellow flowers

toss their manes, where the slippery

trail calls out your name,

where your bones knock together,

fingerhold, foothold,

sinking into the fat grassy hummocks,

for she knows the darkness

like a nugget of sap, weightless

almost like the butterfly’s

loping, how she lingers at the cave

in the few trees, repenting

through madness toward death,

how her mind clings to the singing

of birds and grasshopper

as she kneels down, idle and blessed

not knowing what to do

with the wilderness inside her

since he has gone, died too soon,

often bowing down to love her

when everything was wonderful,

palpable and redemptive

crushing all her foolishness

like the sea whose edges

have rubbed long against the world.