Tropic of Connecticut

It is boiling hot here in Connecticut, where I returned from my summer travels.

Every Saturday morning some of us go to pray the rosary outside an abortion clinic in Hartford. I was so moved to see these dear long-suffering apostles out there in this heat, sweat pouring down their faces.

I came upon this poem by Rita A. Simmonds poem in the Magnificat Year of Mercy Meditations.
I am not good at poetry but this poem seems to me to be a poem of what a woman who is dying feels toward her husband:

​The weight of your dependence,
the rawness of your pain,
the sincerity of your struggle,
the dignity of your way
has made your soul a spectrum for my life

---

​I want you to see what I see: 
the smile that waits to welcome me
despite the battle in vain;
The light in dark circles that shines
​at the revelation of a new day.

​Still, what can buttress the crooked columns
that quaver and crack beneath your sin?
Where is the hand that will close the gap
​that has stolen your wholeness within?

Life is a drama 
and you speak your hope
to an actor whose face you cannot see.
He enters the stage while you turn in your sheets 
​in tension toward rest or release.

​If, in broad daylight,
I could play His part,
I would look at you and love you
the iris of His eye,
the tinted window of His Heart.

Do any of you know more about this woman Catholic poet?

Go here to read an interview with the poet: ​http://shirtofflame.blogspot.com/2012/08/poet-rita-simmonds-on-sacrament-of.html

Here is a collection of her poetry:

A thought that came
to me, I think from
the Holy Spirit:
In your elderly
years think of
yourself less like
the captain of a
ship and more
like a lighthouse!
It gave me
a lot of peace.