Poetry in Ordinary Time: Michaelmas

Saint Michael; stained glass in the Pfarrkirche St. Martin in Linz am Rhein (Germany)
The legend says "Heil Michael du Gottes Streiter" (Heil Michael, you Warrior of God). 20th c.

September 29 marked the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, also known as "Michaelmas".  It honours Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and (sometimes) Uriel.  In addition, this Festival is observed in the U.K. and Ireland as a 'time marker' -- one of the "quarter days" on the calendar, close to a solstice, that marked off when school terms began, servants were hired and leaseholds required rents paid.  This tradition developed in the Middle Ages, but is far less observed nowadays.

True to form, priest and poet Malcolm Guite has a poem for us to mark Michaelmas:


St. Michael and All Angels

Michaelmas gales assail the waning year,
And Michael's scale is true, his blade is bright.
He strips dead leaves, and leaves the living clear
To flourish in the touch and reach of light.
Archangel bring your balance, help me turn
Upon this turning world with you and dance
In the Great Dance.  Draw near, help me discern,
And trace the hidden grace in change and chance.
Angel of fire, love's fierce radiance,
Drive through the deep until the steep waves part;
Undo the dragon's sinuous influence
And pierce the clotted darkness in my heart.
Unchain the child you find there, break the spell
And overthrow the tyrannies of hell.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Detail of an historiated initial 'T' (emporibus) with Michael the Archangel,
who holds the scales to weigh the souls at the Last Judgement and spears a dragon below his feet.

You can hear the poet read this poem aloud HERE.