The following poem comes from the book"Smile the Sun Around My Heart" The Collection of Poems of Anna Mae Marheineke, RSCJ. Sister Marheineke is a 1934 alumna of the Academy of Saint Charles and currently resides in California at the Oakwood Retirement Community. Ecce...Lux! There's a forsythia beneath my window - second story. Three bushes in a row, and one all by its golden self next to a stubborn elm, slow- greening to Spring. That frail yellow finery is more than a little brave, daring a sudden icy wind whipped loose from the West. The noose of winter urgently yields to kite-crowded skies and expectant fields turned to a timid sun. Dark, long months my heart has hounded the dawn. Now, breathless it catches Resurrection joy resolute, buoyam, in the throng of golden bells lacing slim forsythia branches bright below me. Deal kindly, O season of life. Behold the handmaid of Light! --- Anna Mae Marheineke, RSCJ
