In medieval bestiary lore, the heron, a solitary bird,
represents the contemplative seeking God in solitude. The Italian Renaissance
master Giovani Bellini, in his painting, "Saint Francis in Ecstasy,"
places a heron in the background at the moment when Il Poverello receives the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ which
symbolize the saint's union with Our Lord.
Volant: flying
Perbend: divided
diagonally from top left to bottom right
Azure: blue
Tenne: tawney
Cross potenty:
known as the "crutch cross," a cross with bends at each end (here the
beak, wing-tips, and feet of the bird)
Bend sinister: a diagonal band across
the shield (top right/bottom left as viewed; this is opposite the normal
direction, thus "sinister" from the Latin word for "left.")
Torteau: circular devices are known as
"rondels." When red in color, they are "torteau."
The heron pterodactyls forth volant,
Perbends the field twixt azure and tenné.
A cross potenty stretched against the vault
Bends sinister aslant the morning haze.
His prehistoric croak protests the rough
Intrusion of one blundering out of time
And just in time, untimely, late enough,
Yet seeking to keep time in ordered rhyme.
Bellini set him by the saint alone
In solitude, adorned with five torteaux,
But we forsake the cell for home sweet home,
In shopping center loneliness flee wounds.
Uprooted, rootless, restless, may we fly
Back to the wilderness to hear hope's cry.
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