Tendered to Us in Love: A Collection of Poems

By Gail Shanley Corso

These poems in Tendered to Us in Love capture memories of those whom the poet has loved and reflections about places where she has lived, visited, and learned. Several poems invite the reader to consider experiences of visiting early Franciscan chapels and to contemplate the spiritual sense of such spaces. Other poems suggest the poets reflection on the sights and sounds of nature and the awe of creative inspiration. Structures for her poems vary, as do the tones. Several of her poems are imagistic or lyrical while others are narrative. Several suggest her more mature reflective stance about serious matters, yet others are whimsical. Through each the poet invites the reader to enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503541849

Gail Shanley Corso

A professor of English at Neumann University, Gail Shanley Corso began her teaching career while completing her undergraduate degree in English at Brooklyn College by serving as a teacher’s aide at Boody JHS. Her first students who recently had emigrated from Haiti taught her the importance of each word. In 1991, she received her doctorate in rhetoric and writing from Bowling Green State University. A participant in Murphy Writing Seminars, Gail attributes several of her poems as having been created in these poetry workshops. Married and living in Mt. Royal, New Jersey, Gail enjoys life with her husband, Charles, and close connections to her son, Christopher, and daughter, Gina.

Book preview

Action

Arching my arms

In the air

Bending

                                   Moving

My mind

Mellows

Stretching

Soothes

Disconnects

Maddelena Church

So curious,

This holy place,

Then and now,

For worshippers,

Lepers, whores, and pilgrims,

Grateful for

All God gives.

Peaceful place

At plain view

Grounded space

That diverts

From life

Within the Wall.

That Wall

Beyond and

Around the city

On a hill

So removed

From this

Grounded

Chapel.

Within

Silver-starred foil-

Wrapped icons

Adorn

This stone-walled

Haven.

Lilies white

Roses red

Simply staged

Stark

Within

Speak of

Dignity

Unwalled.

Its

Altar slab

Resting upon

A tree’s carved

Lumb’ring trunk

Shows an

Earthy

Sacredness

Rooted

In images

And scents

That even

Mad’lenas

Understand.

image%201.jpg

Church of Santa Maria Maddalena

Photo by author

Chilling

And

Heartfelt.

Tendered to Us in Love

I understand, she said.

Those guns of his grandfather

And father

Tucked under their beds

Not to be handled,

Bullet free and

Uncleaned,

Unshown,

Just to be—

Emblems

Of courage and faith of a kind

Among men, huntsmen,

His father and grandfather,

Him and them

With those guns.

Between them

And the land

With what it

Gifted to each.

Changed now, yet still embodying

That fierce tender load

Of a hunt that

Nature rules,

Yet man’s rules, too,

Abide beside

That trigger pressing purposefully—

A party licensed to hunt

The kill,

To commune in

primal fields,

That oldtimers once owned

Near salmon and smelts-alive rivers.

Them then one with the prey,

On land, in the streams,

With their catch’s