{"id":2870,"date":"2018-03-19T19:10:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T19:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2018-03-20T23:40:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T23:40:51","slug":"santiago-de-compostela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=2870","title":{"rendered":"Santiago de Compostela"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThere is a lot of talk at the moment about people retracing the medieval pilgrim route to Santiago. People undertake this journey now for different reasons, not all religious. It used to take nearly a year to complete from Ireland in medieval times where they were often waylaid by thieves but the sign of the scallop shell on hostels beckoned a welcome and refuge for them. You may be interested in this poem which won the Scintilla Welsh Open Poetry competition about a woman of great faith who suffers her pain stoically and a doubting James (I wonder who he is). The poem is from my collection Rus in Urbe<\/em> which has just been rendered into audio.<\/p>\n

The Miracle of the Rain
\nI undertake the peregrinaci\u00f3n
\nout of secular curiosity.
\nMy companion, Teresa,
\non 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,
\nsuffering 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
\nand wears the scallop shell.
\nOf course it\u2019s only a legend, I say,
\nthis thing about Saint James
\nbeing carried on a shell.
\nIt\u2019s a matter of faith, she says.
\nYou must believe things to be true
\nor the world is just a place of pain.
\nIt was when the hermit Pelayo saw the great light\u2026
\nAnd her own face lights up.
\nWe must get there before July twenty fifth.
\nEl d\u00eda del santo.
\nEl d\u00eda de tu santo, Jaime.
\nNames are fortuitous things, I say
\nAnd this year, nineteen ninety nine,
\nshe says ignoring me, is the a\u00f1o santo.
\nTodo santo, I say mocking her.<\/p>\n

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

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

We enter the cathedral dwarfed
\nlike ants under its enormity.
\nA ceremony is taking place.
\nSeveral turifers
\nraise the giant botafumeiro with ropes.
\nPeople clap
\nand cameras flash from the darkness.
\nThat\u2019s not religion, I say,
\nit\u2019s just a spectacle,
\nand why do they need it so large?
\nTo fumigate all the unclean, she says.
\nDoes the size of church paraphernalia
\nenhance religious depth?
\nBe quiet, James, she whispers,
\nand wait and pray for the miracle.
\nWhat miracle? I say.
\nThe rain has stopped,
\nsomeone whispers from the back.
\nShe looks at me, no longer cheerful,
\nher face contorted, showing pain now
\nthat was hidden all along,
\nand copious tears flow out of her eyes
\nas if she had gathered up
\nall the rain of Santiago.
\nShe presses her pilgrim\u2019s staff
\nand I see the skeleton of her hand.
\nPray to Santiago, she says,
\nthat he may cure me.
\nAnd I move closer to her in the pew
\nand we both kneel down.<\/p>\n

The Miracle of the Rain, winner of the Scintilla Welsh Open Poetry Competition.
\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
\nAdjudication by Hilary Llewellyn-Williams.
\nThis poem is from my collection of award-winning contemporary poems of country and city life, Rus in Urbe, which is now available on audio.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nIt is for sale at Audible, Amazon and iTunes. Free with Audible Trial. Listen to a free sample and\/or buy with one click for \u00a33.23 at https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Rus-in-Urbe\/dp\/B07B9KYB25\/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_8_twi_audd_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520680743&sr=1-8 or for $3.95 at https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rus-in-Urbe\/dp\/B07B9LVYYZ\/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_9_twi_audd_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520680939&sr=1-9
\nIt is also available as a epub or paperback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a lot of talk at the moment about people retracing the medieval pilgrim route to Santiago. People undertake this journey now for different reasons, not all religious. It used to take nearly a year to complete from Ireland…<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2870","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\/2870","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=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}