"In traditional Jewish life, as noted, this union occurs when a physical being—God’s cosmic wife— performs a physical mitzvah that draws down an Infinite, male light into the feminine, finite world—a union in God’s bridal chamber. Thus, Judaism is a religion whose practices engage largely with the mundane, with physicality. Maria Gillan’s poem, “After School on Ordinary Days,” provides an example of how contemporary poetry aims for a similar kind of union—albeit not in an overtly spiritual context:
…After supper on ordinary
days, our homework finished, we’d play
Monopoly or gin rummy, the kitchen
warmed by the huge coal stove, the wind
outside rattling the loose old windows,
we inside, tucked in, warm and together,
on ordinary days that we didn’t know
until we looked back across a distance
of forty years would glow and shimmer
in memory’s flickering light.
Memory’s flickering light is, of course, synonymous with the poetry that records and illuminates this everyday scene. It is poetry that deems the mundane, “the ordinary days”—and not necessarily the exalted moment—a worthy subject, perhaps the most worthy of subjects."
Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s “After School on Ordinary Days” appears in her poetry collection Italian Women in Black Dresses.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan's most recent books are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow and the poetry collection, What Blooms in Winter . Her collection of poems along with some of her paintings is The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets . Maria's official website is MariaGillan.com.
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