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Monday, May 28 2001
High Faculty
Elizabeth Dandy

Elizabeth Dandy was born in Salzburg, Austria. She studied at the Benedictine Abbey school at Frauenworth, Bavaria, and after graduation studied music, singing and dramatic arts at the Music Academy, Salzburg and foreign languages at the University of Perugia, Italy. click here to read about Elizabeth Dandy and her other poems on SAWF.

They tell us dryly: "Stop Imagining!" -
And look so smug and patronizingly
"Its laughable, this crazy fancy thing,
Removed from every day’s reality".

The Maid of Orleans aptly did respond
Her cleric judges who made very light
Of visions, voices coming from beyond
That bade her to take up her arms and fight.

We know full well what the brave maid replied:
"Imagination Sires, - of course it is-
This is the gentle ways and means wherewith
The Lord will prod at first and then provide".

This statement,- offered with a candid smile,
In confidence and sweet serenity
Silenced the wicked bishop for a while
And made him ponder the High Faculty.

He laid another trap, - to test her wit-
Could sheer imagining perhaps set free?-
Or,- is a thing if one imagines it
Authentic? fantasy? or heresy?

Imagination! - O high faculty!-
Who dares belittle, trivialize, malign
Images recondite in deep a sea
And of a portent arduous to define.

From the beginning present, - up they surge-
Icons - purporting-- "possibility" -
Well up in triumph to emerge
As truth, and purposeful reality.

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