I came to writing after a full career as a forest ecologist in the Pacific Northwest. My poems have appeared in Blue Heron Review, HEART, The Rumpus, Front Porch Review, and Halfway Down the Stairs, among other publications. I have two chapbooks: Woman and Horse and The Dream of Falling.
I received a BA in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and an MS in forest ecology from Oregon State University. My husband and I moved to New Mexico in 2021. Change can be good.
Currently, I’m reading poems around New Mexico. Maybe if you find yourself in the neighborhood?
I’m putting this in on an impulse. Growing up, I had a picture book of famous paintings from El Prado, the famous museum of art in Madrid. There’s a painting by a Flemish master that I’d never seen anywhere else,. I have carried it in my memory since then. It turns out that in its day, this vision of the aftermath of the Crucifixion was groundbreaking and famous. Now I see it as heartbreaking. Here’s the painting (that I grabbed from the web), a model that I made, and a poem.
Ekphrastic: Descent from the Cross
1435
Roger van der Weyden
El Museo del Prado
Descent
what you can see—
the dead son.
the mother.
friends and family crowded knee to knee.
their tears like pearls.
what you can’t see—
mud made from dust and blood on her dress.
she will try to wash it out in the laundry.
the one lowering down the body
clings to the cross,
gets splinters in his hands.
he rinses off the three long nails.
what they remember later—
they were all crying.
what they forget—
what anyone said.
how they got there.
missing angel—
the numb angel.
the angel of mercy.
missing miracle—
the miracle of the next morning,
when they all wake up
and keep going.
but this is not a special story;
this story happens all the time.
we don’t need faith
to believe
in a crucifixion.
What’s new?
These last two years have presented us with a new appreciation for health and well-being. Currently, we are working on shoring up those two. I’ve been writing with friends and poetry allies, but haven’t put anything out there into the world.
So, I find that I’m writing a lot of list poems. And sometimes things that are not at all list poems. Take a look at the Poems section for a couple of works-in-progress that are, in fact, new.
Why not click to see the Poems page?
Contact: cnmccainmessages@gmail.com
Author photo: Karl Maasdam. All other photos and illustrations by Cynthia McCain.