Sister Anne Higgins, D.C., Poet


	Mount Poet finds meaning in the Ordinary by Judy Williams, CEM Center

	Mount St. Mary's students will have the opportunity to study under a published poet next year. Sister Anne Higgins D.C., Pastoral Associate of Campus Ministry, teaches Freshman Seminar classes. Next fall she will add Professor of Creative Writing to her shingle. "Poet" should be at the very top of the shingle, since she began writing poetry at the age of nine. Sr. Anne holds a masters degree in Liberal Arts and a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction. After teaching high school English in Baltimore during her 20’s, she heard the calling to religious life and, at the age of 30, joined the Daughters of Charity. In 1999 Sr. Anne came to Mount St. Mary’s. Throughout her studies and career, Sr. Anne has nurtured her love of writing poetry. She was first published during her college years. Her work has appeared in Commonweal, a Catholic weekly magazine; Yankee magazine; Review for Religious; and the National Catholic Reporter. Sr. Anne’s friend, Bishop Robert Morneau, auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Green Bay, included seven of her poems in his From Resurrection to Pentecost – a collection of Easter Season meditations (Crossroad Publishing Co., 2000).			Irrevocable I sing of the lost things that cannot be found, the tiny key to the file, the slides of the building that's five years torn down, the photo of the woman ten years dead. I sing of the broken things that cannot be mended: the tulip blossom torn to the ground by the heartless child, the egg seeping out of the carton, the film exposed to the light, the coat lining ripped at the center not the seam. “Every day objects – like shadows, frying pans, afghans – can connect to a larger perception of Life.” Sr. Anne Higgins, D.C.

	But most notably, in 2000 Sr. Anne published her first book, At the Year’s Elbow, (Edwin Mellen Press). It is a collection of poems written from 1970 to 1998. Her topics deal most often with religion or nature. “Antiphon in the Style of Hildegard” deals with both. Besides writing poetry, Sr. Anne also reads her poetry. In 2001 she was invited to the annual Art and Soul Festival at Baylor University in Texas. She also read her poetry and was on a panel at the 2002 Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And then there are the times others read her poetry. During his October 8, 2001 broadcast of the Writer’s Almanac, Garrison Keillor read Sr. Anne’s, “Open-Hearted.” A nest of tubes, a cradle of monitors, someone in there whose breastbone has been pulled open like French Doors, and whose heart, almost broken, has been handled, and laid bare, in front of strangers... [Click here to read rest of poem and hear recording] One can’t help but wonder if Mr. Keillor wasn’t especially touched by this poem, having undergone heart surgery earlier that year. Sr. Anne found the inspiration for “Open-Hearted” after visiting heart patients at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonsville. Other times inspiration comes from the very ordinary, and then later unfolds the extraordinary hidden within. As Sister Anne explains, “Every day objects – like shadows, frying pans, afghans – can connect to a larger perception of Life.” And so she keeps a journal and when something strikes her, she jots it down. Later she will go back and write about it. “The more you write, the more you develop the voice God has given you.” Sister Anne describes this ability as one of God’s gifts, “a gift for seeing the ordinary things of the world from a different angle and seeing the connection between things.” Some of Sister Anne’s poems are prayers; some are inspired by God. “Rain on Hedgerows” was a prayer that flowed out of her. A few of her poems are the voice of a scripture character - “the voice of anyone who has been enlivened by the Lord,” as she puts it. In "The Daughter of Jairus," we hear the daughter of the Jewish official who begged Jesus to cure his dying child. Sister Anne says she has enough poetry since the publication of At the Year’s Elbow, to fill another book. We can’t wait!			Antiphon in the Style of Hildegard O You Who made the sharp shinned hawk with red eyes rend the singing sparrows in the silent slice of death, Who willed the sunset sky with roses and crows, Who paint the breast of the warbler with flashes of Your Spirit, and crown the finger small kinglet with Your blood, bless me with wonder at the paradox of Your plans. Like birds, may my heart’s croaks and arias praise You. Rain on Hedgerows I do desire you, God Your touch like rain on my face, rain on the landscape of my heart, like a meadow full of weedy brown late summer grass, full of field sparrows, tangled vines full of thorns and berries, pokeberry, chokecherry, hackberry trees, full of cedar waxwings, your rain lingering like dew on that thicket that is my heart, that thicket of desires, thorns, thorny questions and leaf-berry thick hidden places where the warblers go to eat the purple berries of my passions, my regrets, my dreams, fears, imaginings, a thick, overgrown path, Lord, wet with your rain, growing and ripening all that fruit for your Spirit to eat, your Spirit in the wings of a million birds passing through me. The Daughter of Jairus Only You can tell them that I am only sleeping, not dead, all those women who mourn for me outside the door – those ghosts, those grandmothers, guardians and celebrities – tell them. Only You can sell me and keep me, can call me from the night behind my eyes. I lie in an empty room there the sun sends her pillars gushing to the floor. Only You can wake me in daylight’s delight. I have slept so late, in the center of my body is a glass full of rest. Poetry selections taken from At the Year's Elbow, by Anne Higgins, Edwin Mellen Press, copyright 2000..