{"id":1746,"date":"2015-09-14T08:42:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T08:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2015-09-14T08:48:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T08:48:28","slug":"1746","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=1746","title":{"rendered":"El Camino de Santiago"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a lot of talk in media about people undertaking the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, you might be interested in reading my poem The Miracle of the Rain which won the Scintilla Welsh open competition.<\/p>\n

\u2018The entire drama is conveyed with such subtlety and delicacy. It\u2019s one of the most moving poems about faith that I have come across, and its impact relies largely on what is not stated. Instead, it wakens our imaginations.\u2019
\n\tAdjudication by Hilary Llewellyn-Williams.<\/p>\n

THE MIRACLE OF THE RAIN<\/p>\n

I undertake the peregrinaci\u00f3n out of secular curiosity.
\nMy companion, Teresa on the other hand is saintly.
\nI met her on the road to Santiago.
\nShe is frail and her hair is a shiny silver.
\nShe walks discalced, suffering calluses and cuts smilingly.
\nHer face is mystical, belonging to a sublime world.<\/p>\n

I walk beside her in my sturdy walking boots
\non the road to Santiago.
\nShe carries the pilgrim\u2019s staff and wears the scallop shell.
\n\u2018Of course it\u2019s only a legend,\u2019 I say, \u2018this thing about Saint James
\nbeing carried on a shell.\u2019
\n\u2018It\u2019s a matter of faith,\u2019 she says. \u2018You must believe things to be true
\nor the world is just a place of pain. It was when the hermit Pelayo saw the great light\u2026\u2019
\nAnd her own face lights up. \u2018We must get there before July twenty fifth.\u2019
\n\u2018El d\u00eda del santo.\u2019
\n\u2018El d\u00eda de tu santo, Jaime.\u2019
\n\u2018Names are fortuitous things,\u2019 I say
\n\u2018And this year, nineteen ninety nine,\u2019 she says ignoring me, \u2018is the a\u00f1o santo.\u2019
\n\u2018Todo santo,\u2019 I say mocking her.<\/p>\n

The pilgrimage grows tiresome and difficult.
\nBut Teresa, she carries the smile all through the long journey.
\n\u2018My feet are killing me,\u2019 I say, \u2018and I am sunburnt.
\nThat is the problem with Spain, too much sun.\u2019
\n\u2018You must not complain,\u2019 she says and her feet are bleeding.
\n\u2018The peregrinaci\u00f3n is like life. We must keep going.
\nWe will be judged on how well we travelled.\u2019<\/p>\n

We arrive at the city of Santiago on July twenty fifth.
\n\u2018We have made it,\u2019 she shouts with joy, prostrating herself on the cobbled square
\nin front of the cathedral, delighting in the drizzle that has begun to fall.
\n\u2018A miracle,\u2019 she says, trying to grasp the drops. \u2018The miracle of the rain.\u2019
\nAnd I see the strange sight \u2013 people in Spain walking around
\nunder a black sky of umbrellas. <\/p>\n

We enter the cathedral dwarfed like ants under its enormity.
\nA ceremony is taking place.
\nSeveral turifers raise the giant botafumeiro with ropes.
\nPeople clap and cameras flash from the darkness.
\n\u2018That\u2019s not religion,\u2019 I say, \u2018it\u2019s just a spectacle,
\nand why do they need it so large?\u2019
\n\u2018To fumigate all the unclean,\u2019 she says.
\n\u2018Does the size of church paraphernalia enhance religious depth?\u2019
\n\u2018Be quiet James\u2019 she whispers, \u2018and wait and pray for the miracle.\u2019
\n\u2018What miracle?\u2019 I say.
\n\u2018The rain has stopped,\u2019 someone whispers from the back.
\nShe looks at me, no longer cheerful, her face contorted,
\nshowing pain now that was hidden all along,
\nand copious tears flow out of her eyes
\nas if she had gathered up all the rain of Santiago.
\nShe presses her pilgrim\u2019s staff and I see the skeleton of her hand.
\n\u2018Pray to Santiago,\u2019 she says, \u2018that he may cure me.\u2019
\nAnd I move closer to her in the pew and we both kneel down.<\/p>\n

The poem is from my collection Rus in Urbe available at (copy and paste)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rus-Urbe-James-Lawless-ebook\/dp\/B00MH3KLQ6\/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_32?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442219407&sr=1-32&refineme
\n\"rus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a lot of talk in media about people undertaking the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, you might be interested in reading my poem The Miracle of the Rain which won the Scintilla Welsh open competition. \u2018The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1751,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}