Anna Mae Marheineke, RSCJ, was a talented and much-loved educator, who touched countless lives in her long ministry of education. She was also a talented poet. A collection of her poetry was published by the alumni association of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Charles. Below are two of the poems included in the booklet, both dedicated to the students she loved so much and so well.
“Were it not that I have … Dreams” (Hamlet)Dedicated to the children at Grand Coteau
Not bad dreams. Notthe ghoulish kind that stalkone through the nightand corner one, and walk.
wildly into dawn. These dreamsare gentle. Of children whogo shyly up the stairsand, when I call to them through
many distances away, nodcharmingly and smile the sunaround my heart. Oh, childrencan seal my soul in joy, can run
across my life like petals blownbeautiful and free of flower and stem.Then are my nights merry whendreams bring them
dancing down the halls, or findtheir dark and golden heads bentto books in classrooms whereI loved them so, where I meant
to fill with infinity of beautythose eager minds intenselylooking out through wide, grave eyes.So they come, immensely
comforting, curtseying acrossthe long, the happy years. I seethem thus in dreams, always gay,always, I like to think, with love for me.
To the Third Academic
There are thirty-threesitting expectantly before me.I look at them and try to plumb their thoughts, to seein eyes gray-blue and brownflames of curiosity blownto intellect’s full blossom. Lightin their earnest faces upturnedto catch, perhaps, a breathof wisdom’s fragrance burnedbeautiful by years. O Lord, letYour Spirit be their shibboleth,Your Love begetin them enthusiasm eager and swiftfor the Truth You are. And brightbe their seeking, stirredto unquenchable joy at the fountainof your Word.
