Pietisten

Julian: the Showings

by Ann Boaden

After a near-fatal illness, medieval anchoress Julian of Norwich (1343 - ca. 1416) experienced what she called “Showings”: visions from God. These epiphanies assured her that “All shall be well...all manner of thing shall be well.”

Illness rendered her
to essence:
lucent membrane
over bone.
Like a star she shone.
Seekers came
as those of old
to her tiny towered window
that slit the dark
with gold.
Her cell
His opened tomb,
her star
His rising.
All shall be well.
All manner of thing
shall be well.