Old Woman
Old Woman - meaning Summary
Memory Beyond Ritual
The poem sketches an elderly woman, Senora Sanchez, whose interior life is shaped by vivid sensory memories—sea shells, turquoise, a red skirt—and by immediate contact with nature. Her gestures and smile suggest a private, embodied faith: she cannot "say amen" yet finds communion in sunrise, grass, and talking with plants. The poem contrasts institutional religion with personal memory and natural ritual, emphasizing resilience and quiet, tactile remembrance.
Read Complete AnalysesI see Senora Sanchez along the river. Black catfish pop the silver water surface, waves unroll as the gnarled bronze face and black eyes remember cool sea shells and warm turquoise, the turkey gobbling behind bushes, and the red skirt hanging on boughs as she bathed…. She pulls her black sweater snug around her, folded arms across her stomach. She who remembers cannot say amen but smiles to sunrise as she walks through the grass, the tall, green grass, grass that does not listen to the priest in black robes, blooms green as she walks through the grass and talks with them.
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