Dispatches from a Desert Isle: the Place of Salvation

The Pilgrim's Oasis

In my travels across the isle, I came upon this most holy place 

and stopped in to soothe my troubled soul.

An angelic air beckoned me inside.

I strolled its corridors...

 

to its inner sanctum

and made bold to enter the edifice itself, a most beauteous adobe abode.

(Say that five times fast...ly)

Here is what I saw, walking from back to front:

the view from the altar window...

And at the altar, a graceful Madonna gazed down at me

as if in pity of my plight...

 

while devoted saints

both as icons...

...and depicted in perfect glass 

(here are two versions of St. Paul)

 

blessed me from their holy heights.

The transepts invited me on their own journeys of peace and harmony:

And as I turned from the altar, I turned to see the glorious organ that filled the hall

 with heavenly music
Can you hear it too?

I departed as in a dream, floating on that angelic air, 

transported to a better place, indeed transported to 

the cathedral of better days that I once spent with my loving family by my side...

Do you suppose this Eden really exists on the Island, 

ever to be discovered again,

or was it just a mirage

created by the heat and my own fevered soul?