Melissa West

At the heart of the Camino de Santiago is the meseta, the high flat plain of northern Spain, and at the heart of the meseta sits the village of Castrojeriz. Just before you reach the village, the Camino passes through the arches of the ruined monastery of San Antón.

Monasterio San Antón was a pilgrim hospital, run by the Antonine order. For seven hundred years, the monks tended to the pilgrims who passed by, and to those in the community who suffered. For another two hundred years thereafter, passers by wondered about the ruins of the once-great monastery. Now, it is a pilgrim hostel. (And I so wish I had stayed there on my own pilgrimage in 2006. The sleeping quarters were open to the air, and I wasn’t carrying a sleeping bag. But I imagine what it might have been like, watching the stars come out as the night fell, listening to the hooting of the owls that live in the remaining towers. Next time, for sure….)

This past winter, my friend Rebekah Scott approached me about doing some illustrations for a small booklet about the monastery, written by her and Robert Mullen and designed by our mutual friend Kim, the sales of which would help support the hostel (which is run entirely on donations). Yes! I said immediately. This week, the booklets arrived.

I have to say, this is a great little book. It is well-written, full of information, a treat for pilgrims and non-pilgrims alike.

Besides the cover illustration, I contributed a portrait of Saint Anthony, a reliquary, and an image of the remains of the great Tau rose window.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, you can make a donation via the Donate button on Rebekah’s blog, then send an email to let me know you’ve done so (be sure to include your mailing address) and I can send you a copy. Donations help keep the pilgrim hostel running; any amount will be a great help and greatly appreciated.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I am obsessed with all things pilgrimage, following my long walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. This fall, I was noodling around on the internet when I found a link for Pilgrimage Magazine, based in Pueblo, Colorado. To quote from their website,

Pilgrimage Magazine, published three times a year, emphasizes themes of place, spirit, peace & justice, in and beyond the Greater Southwest.

Well, that is all right up my alley, so I contacted the editors.

I am very, very pleased to say that the new issue of Pilgrimage has just come out, and it contains two of my Camino prints, along with a host of truly excellent poems and short stories. I am so excited!

Each issue of the magazine has a theme. The theme of this issue is “Between the Dead & the Living,” which comes from an entry in Charles Darwin‘s journals. To quote from editor Maria Melendez’s introduction to the volume:

…[Charles Darwin] expresses delight and wonder at similarities between South American fossil species and living South American animals. He’s certain ‘this wonderful relationship in the same continent between the dead and the living’ will, more than any other line of inquiry, illuminate the mystery of ‘the appearance of organic beings on our earth and their disappearance from it.'” Beloved organic beings do disappear, but they remain: in fossils, stories, evolutionary transformations, lingering memories…

To be honest, I had meant to buy a back issue before this one came out, but being a professional procrastinator, I had not gotten around to it. Let me say this now: this magazine is GOOD. I have read it through once, and I know I will sit and re-read it again …and again. And I will go and purchase back issues. You should buy a copy, too. You will not be disappointed.

Here is one of my prints, Following in the Footsteps of Generations, in place, with the magazine held open by one of my favorite rocks (picked up at the beach in Pescadero):

Opposite my print is a poem by Jane Vincent Taylor, who has kindly given me permission to re-copy it here.

ASH WEDNESDAY
All our seasons come back stamped
with the old rituals and their demands:
pray the rosary and give up something
hard for Lent, said Sister Veronice, as
new snow watered the tips of crocus.

We gave up chocolate, Elvis, pizza,
movies, records, and sleeping late,
but we didn’t give up kissing, longing,
prowling the boundaries of love.

I still tend to cheat. Today, walking
like a glutton into a cold Lenten morning
wrapped in lavender, capped in Valentine
red, I will not deny myself

these Franciscan woods where passion
waits under leaves and rocks and moss.
If there must be a litany, as it seems
there always must, say: alfalfa white,
sumac rust, lichen blue; say sycamore

suede, cauliflower cloud on faded blue.
Look, here’s a spark of Jay, a rhythmic
knock of Ladderback, and a smaller
Downy flown to the blackjack brambles.
Today, I will let the cedar berries be

rosary beads; my losses and my gifts,
my mysteries. I will give up everything
except the whole loved world that never
fails to soften, break apart, and rise.

P.S. Pilgrimage Magazine‘s website has not yet been updated to include this issue. I’m sure it will be very, very soon. In the meantime, you could harass your local bookstore to carry it!