Tag: hope

Resurrection

As the glad phoenix from his spicy bed
Bursts in vermilion splendour, as the bright
Sudden lightning-flash and orange-red
And leaping flames light up the night:

So is the thunder-clap of Jesus’ rising.
Consternation, joy, amazement all together
Confound us, shake us open for surprising
Truth to penetrate. HE IS RISEN – whether

Or not I believe it, he is truly living,
Unconstrained now, loving without limit,
Only my refusal may frustrate his giving.

But Gód’s blazing glory is beyónd what I can guess,
Negativity or evil cannot hinder, cannot dim it,
For his fire will enfold me and transmute me into Yes.

 

tRuth 2019

Easter evening

The choirs have gone home, and in the grey spring
Dusk the church grows still. The coals
That glowed red in the thurible are dimming
While belated incense falls in veils
Like mist in quiet fields at evening.

The resurrection songs have sounded bright
And joyful in the morning, but the pale
Hospice patient will not last the night.
Death still reigns this side of the veil
And bitter loss like icy rain, like blight.

But the outrage that we feel at death is pointing
To the fact that love outlasts the body’s death.
Reality wears veils, and hiding, hinting
Shows truth too big to grasp, like breath
Of incense clouds evoking light that’s glinting

Just out of sight, where other songs resound
Beyond the veil, a place that yet is strange.
When at twilight our turn comes around
To part the mists, though everything is changed,
Familiar voices welcome us as found.

 

tRuth 2018

 

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