The Book and the Cup
by Jessica Powers
I am reading out of the book of my own evil;
I am drinking out of the cup of my own shame
here in the darkness with no candle lit.
The Hand of God is holding the book for me,
and I am reading it.
He is holding the cup and its drink is liquid flame.
Where can I hide from this vast condemnation?
The Face of God is merciful, is kind;
yet my own script is pitiless to accuse,
and the deep draught of my own conscience sears.
I try, as once, to make escape through weeping;
but here one sees more clearly through one's tears.
Oh, to be lost, destroyed, obliterated!
To have the self in me erased and done!
Would I were naked spirit holding God
and all else nothingness, oblivion…
Yet since the Will of God presents this book,
I would not turn from it to look upon
the fairest poetry that earth has given.
I would not trade this cauterizing cup
for all the wines in heaven.
Jessica Powers
1905 – 1988
Early Years (1905 - 1936)
- Born and raised in Mauston, Wisconsin
- Both her father and older sister had died by her thirteenth birthday
- Returned to raise her brothers after her mother's death in 1925
- She published over 100 poems before 1936
Carmelite Community (1941 - 1988)
- Entered the Milwaukee community of the Carmel of Mother of God, as a postulant In 1941
- In 1942, she received the habit of the Carmelites and was given the religious name of Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit.
- As a mystic Jessica expresses in her poetry the direct, intense, immediacy of God's presence.
Poem Structure
Custom
The Book and the Cup
By Timothy Krell
The Book and the Cup
An overview of the poem "The Book and the Cup" by Jessica Powers.
