Thorncrown Chapel
A Poem by award winning writer Carolyn Boyles
Jim Reed and E. Fay Jones met in Fayetteville
during a meeting now many years past.
Said Reed to Jones, I own some land on a hill.
I need a building that will last.
What kind of building do you want?
A chapel is what I want you to build.
I’d be delighted to take on your task.
My talents as an architect are skilled.
I’ll design all day, I’ll design all night
to make form and function blend.
I was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.
I’ll make belief suspend.
I’ve studied Sainte Chappelle in Paris
as a model and for inspiration.
It’ll be a design full of love, soaring slot of sky above
and a matter of dedication.
The building must become part of the site.
Eight acres is the size of the lot.
We’ll build it without heavy equipment, all right.
We’ll do our best with the circumstances we’ve got.
I’ll get it drawn, I’ll get it built
without a lot of nomenclature.
The most important thing in designing this wing
is communion with nature.
As you traverse the path and transition inside
the surrounding woods put the path in compression.
Solitude, sanctuary, serenity, and peace
incorporated into artistic expression.
What style is it, you want to know?
It’s modern and to convention it’s a cataclysm.
It’s Ozark Gothic, it’s not myopic.
It’s as if it were an organism.
We’ll use some steel, we’ll use some pine
and glass panels all around
with a flagstone floor, which you’ll adore.
Inside you’ll feel safe and sound.
The light will dance, the light will shift
as the sun travels through the day
with patterns so bright young and old will delight
in constantly changing play.
The building stresses will be supported
by internal pullin’ not outside pushin’.
The benches where you sit, and talk to God for a bit
will have really blue, comfy seat cushions.
It’ll grow out of the site, like from a seed within.
It’ll exist in the continuous present.
It’ll satisfy social and spiritual needs
and besides, it’ll look very pleasant.
I won’t try to reinvent the wheel.
I won’t bend steel into flowers.
I’ll have the ultimate of respect, for materials, by heck.
Nine to five will be the visiting hours.
Visitors will come from all over the world,
grandsons and nephews and nieces.
We’ll make it quite good, an intricate lattice of wood,
a building of many small pieces.
All Wayfarer souls will be welcome in here,
no conflict and non-confrontational,
whether Christian, or Jewish, or other belief,
Non-denominational.
It will be built day by day with wood transported this way,
two men shoulder to shoulder wooden beams will carry.
It’d be faster with busses, with this lacework of trusses.
In this way building and site, they shall marry.
The processional path begins outside
and heads inside toward the altar.
Outside is a rock, of which I’ll take stock
as the stopping state and for the path as a halter.
During construction a dismayed Jim Reed prayed,
when funding became sorely lacking.
Bent knees on the floor, he asked God for more
and within days he had new cash backing.
Many millions have come here, to visit each year
to see this chapel in Eureka Springs,
where the roof beams form a canopy, splendid among the trees,
and the soul of Man is allowed to sing.
His mentor is remembered, in magnificent splendor
by his masterpiece, Fallingwater.
Thorncrown lives on but sadly, Fay Jones is gone.
He is survived by his wife and his daughters.
Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Vieth Boyles used by permission
Endorsed by The Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas
Carolyn Boyles of North Little Rock, Arkansas is a freelance writer with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Illinois in Urbana and an MBA degree in Marketing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Some of her writing accomplishments include winning first place in the March 2009 Economic Challenge Award Contest from the Real Economic Impact Tour/National Disability Institute and authoring the book, A Complete Plain-English Guide to Living with a Spinal Cord Injury: Valuable Information From A Survivor (2007). Additionally, Boyles was a finalist in thenovelette.com’s Photo Prompt Contest in 2010. She is a published author in both non-fiction and fiction. Her websites are www.carolynboyles.com and www.livingwithspinalcordinjury.com. She can be reached at cboyles@aol.com.
Bibliography
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