Impromptu Pilgrimage: Marion Shrine

by Frank J. Tassone · 26 September 2019

sculpture of the verging merry in a monastery

The Stations of the Cross lead us to Lady Park. There, refurbished statues, on new pedestals that depict the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries of the Rosary, line a path.

At the end of the path, a 48-foot-tall, 6.5-ton Black Madonna stands in the center of the park.

A bald woman wearing a visor cap and a younger woman pray a Hail Mary, their rosaries in hand. They are so like the other rosaries that cling to the bushes abutting the 30-foot, Vermont stone pedestal, upon which the dark-bronze Madonna stands.

sitting silent the sound of running water from a fountain

Photo by Laura Allen

Frank J. Tassone

Frank J. Tassone lives in New York City's "back yard" with his wife and son. He fell in love with writing after he wrote his first short story at age 12 and his first poem in high school. He began writing haiku and haibun seriously in the 2000s. His haikai poetry has appeared in Failed Haiku, Cattails, Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online, Contemporary Haibun, The Haiku Foundation and Haiku Society of America member anthologies. He is a contributing poet for the online literary journal Image Curve, and a performance poet with Rockland Poets. When he's not writing, Frank works as a special education high school teacher in the Bronx. When he's not working or writing, he enjoys time with his family, meditation, hiking, practicing tai chi and geeking out to Star Wars, Marvel Cinema and any other Sci-Fi/Fantasy film and TV worth seeing.