At 90, Dorothy Colgan stays busy writing poetry
Dorothy Colgan poses for a photograph with one of her sons, Benedictine Father Tobias Colgan, prior of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, on Jan. 2 outside her apartment in St. Meinrad.
By Mary Ann Wyand
ST. MEINRAD—Ninety-year-old Dorothy Colgan could be the poet laureate of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis if there were such an honorary title.
The longtime St. Meinrad parishioner has had more poems published in the “My Journey to God” column of The Criterion than any other Catholic poet in central and southern Indiana.
During the past two years, 18 of her religious poems were published in the diocesan newspaper, including tributes to Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and St. Theodora Guérin. (See some of her poems published in 2005-06)
She also contributed a four-part reflection on the mysteries of the rosary as well as a meditation on the Stations of the Cross published with a photo essay of the ornate stations at historic Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Indianapolis.
Writing poetry is a devout expression of her faith for the mother of seven children, who still leads a busy life that includes trips to other states to visit her sons and daughters.
As a grandfather clock chimes the hours in her small apartment just down the hill from Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Colgan sits at her dining room table and takes pen in hand to craft poignant expressions of life and faith inspired by Scripture, saints and daily events.
“I write for the person in the pew,” she said on Jan. 2. “I get a thought and I’ve got to chew on it. … I just keep scratching out and putting in and saving a line. … It helps me converse with the Lord. Doing what you like to do just makes the road [of life] so interesting to me.”
In a tribute to St. Joseph published in the poetry column, she wrote, in part, “St. Joseph, not by words but deeds, / You showed the strength that patience needs. / Anxiety, when quelled by trust, / Can fashion sanctity from dust. …”
As Pope John Paul II lay dying at the Vatican on April 2, 2005, people stood in prayerful silence at St. Peter’s Square.
Colgan offered her thanks to the Holy Father with these words, “Two windows washed / By pilgrim tears / Formed, drop by drop, / Throughout the years / By longing hearts / That time endears.”
And when the College of Cardinals elected German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the 265th pope on April 19, 2005, Colgan captured the historic moment in a three-stanza poem titled “Habemus Papam!”
Her papal tribute reads, in part, “Fling wide the doors of centuries, / Let voices hail the chosen son, / The shoes of Peter filled anew, / As past and present merge as one. / … O sixteenth Benedict, find strength / From namesakes sleeping now in peace. / With Benediction from your hand / May harmony and love increase.”
After Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast in late August of 2005, Colgan shared a reflection titled “Requiem,” that explains, “Death is the blossom, / life the stem— / One breath will touch the two of them. / Forevermore the bloom will live / Reflecting what the stem could give. / … O ageless flower, withered stem, / How sweet the scent of requiem.”
As the Church prepared for the canonization of St. Theodora, Colgan preserved the joy and excitement about Indiana’s first saint in a poem that begins, “No shoreline too far, / No ocean too vast— / When God plants the seed / He unfurls the mast.”
Benedictine Father Tobias Colgan, prior of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, said he is amazed by his mother’s gift for conveying so much meaning in so few words.
“I think the thing I find startling about her writing is that it is simple words and simple concepts that are very profound,” Father Prior Tobias explained. “The way she can turn a little phrase or the way she’s looking at a particular scene that is so familiar to us gives us a chance to look at it a little differently.”
He said his mother “contemplated the blank tableau” for many years while raising seven children with his late father, Thaddeus Colgan, who died in 2001.
Dorothy Gstettenbauer Colgan grew up in Rock Island, Ill., on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Her maternal grandmother’s maiden name was “La Plume,” which is French for “the pen,” and her German father loved to rhyme words. She believes that she inherited their creative talent.
Colgan has always loved to write poetry, and was able to focus more on her gift of imagery during her retirement years in a house built on the hill in St. Meinrad that she named “Mount Rush No More” and now in her apartment.
Much of her inspiration for poetry comes from Gospel accounts of the miracles performed by Jesus.
“I think about the people who witnessed the miracles,” Colgan said. “Their lives must have been embellished by what they saw happen. Any of those miracles deserve more looking into. I think that’s where you can find a lot of poems, just looking beyond the miracles.” †
