MOTHER TERESA

	by Alicia Ghiragossian


	You closed your eyes
	after giving a new dimension
			  to kindness
			  to love
	after stretching your arms
	beyond your own body
	      to touch a sufferer
	      to soothe a wounded soul.

	You closed your eyes
	to grow wings of cherubs
	so they would take you sooner
		    to mitigate hunger
		    and ease agony
	as if your mission
		    would never be over
	as if you would not be allowed
		    to rest.

	They called you Mother
	because a heart in pain
	      always came first
	because you were there
	      for every need.

	So small
	yet so strong and determined.

	Your boundless energy
	      moved mountains
	to shape
	the indifference of men
	and you gathered
	the hands of the world
	to build a new sunrise.

	You - miracle maker -
	had a vision
	and guided your faith
	to accomplish your dream
	which was our dream
	to imprint a difference
	to restore a weakened peace
	to seed a never-ending love.

	Now you are traveling
	      up and up
	beyond the clouds
	with the chant of angels
	until you become light

	and return
	particle by particle
	to fill with tenderness
	all the corners of grief.

	You closed your eyes
	- I know -
	to design a new task
	to reach a new heaven
	to defeat all death.

	And that is how
	saints are born.
 
--
Alicia Ghiragossian, an American-Argentine-Armenian writer, is the
only living poet whose work has been illustrated by the legendary
Pablo Picasso, and one of very few who writes in three languages:
English, Spanish and Armenian. Her poems represent a mystical and
coded messages intended to ignite spiritual awareness. Whether the
poems serve to give voice to human suffering or highlight injustice on
a grand scale, they are thought provoking poetic discourses. They
allow the readers to discover a pathway of healing through love,
forgiveness, hope and peace, as well as to forge their own reality.