Notre Dame
Our Lady, please teach us
that nothing lasts, not stone
or iron, except that we rebuild.
We gather around you in song
transfixed by your fire as all men
are transfixed by fire and made small.
In your long memory, you have seen
how temporary we are, how little
we have, and how we waste our energies.
You've witnessed our grasping for control,
our crusades and revolutions and world wars.
You've seen who we are when we destroy.
But in sight of your light and your eye
we have also aspired with more grace.
You've known Piaf and Monet, Hugo and Bartholdi.
Even your own great bones that define
a landscape against the human shifting of time
are the reaching work of our broken hearts.
So we pray that you teach us
to rebuild, to tend with patience and love,
the impermanent, beautiful work we create.
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