A House of Poetry for All People

Sonia Coman is the brains behind the Cathedral's digital outreach, but she's also a talented poet.

Sonia, if you’ve never met her, is a woman of a thousand hidden talents: everything from business theory to AI to art history and so much more. She’s one of the few members of the Cathedral staff with a Ph.D.

In her spare time, she’s also an amateur poet, and she graciously agreed to share 10 haiku poems that were inspired by her Cathedral musings. Haiku, as you’ll remember from elementary school, originated in Japan and is structured on a 5/7/5 syllable pattern.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we did:

blinding midday sun
gliding over the gargoyles
a bird’s cool shadow

organ notes ascend
the empty Cathedral is
no longer empty

Cathedral gardens
two dachshunds meet on a path
everyone’s watching

chapel mosaic
colorful and glistening
chips of history

bells ringing at dusk
yellow leaves dance in the wind
and quietly fall

acolytes’ chatter
and the scent of frankincense
buoy up the chapel

a beloved carol
grandmother and granddaughter
the same smiley eyes

Rose Window at dusk
orange flickers of light dance
as all eyes look up

forever chasing
never catching – carved in stone,
a determined cat

silent prayers and
young voices soaring in song
the rhythm of hope