First task: spread out your tent cloths unsparingly
By Mia Schilling Grogan
from Enlarge the Space of Your Tent
Enlarge the space of your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;
lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs. (Is 54:2)
I. First task: spread out your tent cloths unsparingly
Enlarge the space of your tent
gathering day by day
what’s needed to make new panels --
new strips of sturdy fabric
to stitch to the outmost edges
of our shade and shelter from rain.
As Leah and Rachel sheared goats,
then washed and spun and wove
the cloth to repair their canopies,
let us forage for scraps, piece out
and baste, patchwork our canvased
haven. Stretch out swaddling clothes,
fasten them to sails, stitch in a tunic
and shroud. The cloak cleaved
for a beggar, garments puddled
at a bishop’s feet, miraculous tilma,
relic scraps, robes, wimples.
The refugee’s salt-stiffened t-shirt,
the survivor’s hospital gown,
rent and mended mourning clothes,
school uniforms, sackcloth.
The nurse’s scrubs, shelter blankets,
tarpaulins of rescue. Sari, kimono,
kilt, dashiki. Flags of everywhere
and everyone’s belonging, banners
speaking peace, woven of plants
garnered with care from our earth.
Let us stretch above our heads
the hopes of our hearts, calling out
our welcome to those standing outside,
all who wilt in the parching desert:
Come in! Sit down in the shade
of restfulness, refreshment.
Recline with us, tell your stories.
We will listen with ears of the heart
as you share in our limitless feast.
Artist Statement
Task One: Spread out your tent cloths unsparingly I am drawn to the beautiful scriptural allusion and metaphor that animated the Working Document for the Continental Stage of the Synod on Synodality – the Church as the Tent of Meeting where the people of God gather and welcome all (see the excerpt below). I imagined that the work of enlarging this tent involves drawing on our history, hopes, and sorrows – which the various items of clothing and scraps of material symbolize. I have meditated here on the first step: the extension of the sheltering tent cloths, but I am also working on poems that engage the other pieces of this analogy: the ropes that respond to tensions in our Church and world, and the pegs or stakes that ground us, but which also enable us to move and follow God’s call.
“To prepare, it is necessary to enlarge the tent, acting on the three elements of its structure. The first is the tent cloths, which protect from the sun, wind and rain, delineating a space of life and conviviality. They need to be spread out, so that they can also protect those who are still outside this space, but who feel called to enter it.” - from the WORKING DOCUMENT FOR THE CONTINENTAL STAGE of the Synod on Synodality
About the Artist
Mia Schilling Grogan is an associate professor of English at Chestnut Hill College. She is a medievalist who specializes in hagiography and women’s spiritual writing. Her poems have appeared in many journals including America, First Things, and Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry. In 2023 she was pleased to win third place in the Catholic Literary Arts Sacred Poetry Contest, a Laureate’s Choice award in the Maria Faust Sonnet Contest, and an Honorable Mention in the Fare Forward Poetry Competition.