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  • The Still Pilgrim Ponders Metaphor
  • Angela Alaimo O’Donnell (bio)

“The heart of Jesus is a window that is always open.”

—St. Catherine of Siena

An open window, yes, but it’s on fire. The lintel hot as hell. The red frame singed and smoking, fringed with flame. It takes more than fear, more than mere desire to steal through that aperture, a hot thief in search of treasure, some measure of belief that you can stand the heat at the heart’s core, that it’s not just a window but a door

you can step through and suddenly be free. Leave the hose and ax, the fire-proof suit. They can’t save you from this bloody conflagration. No matter how astute your mind, you must let your heart be burned, torch every bit of sense you’ve ever learned. [End Page 115]

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell teaches English at Fordham University in New York City and serves as Associate Director of Fordham’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her publications include two chapbooks, Mine (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and Waiting for Ecstasy (Franciscan University of Steubenville Press, 2009), and four collections of poems: Moving House, Saint Sinatra, Waking My Mother, and Lovers’ Almanac. She has also published The Province of Joy a book of hours based on the prayer practice of Flannery O’Connor, Fiction Fired by Faith, a biography of O’Connor, and Mortal Blessings, a memoir. A new book of her poems, Still Pilgrim, is forthcoming. http://angelaalaimoodonnell.com/; aodonnell@fordham.edu

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