A Poem for Holy Cross (Year B)

The Feast of Holy Cross is September 14.

To kill the hero is the utterest of mistakes;
Bad storytelling at best;
Stark failure at worst.

To glorify the tool, the rood, the cross
Admission of defeat at best;
Unhealthy obsession at worst.

And yet the worst mistaken failure is the world’s best story;
And the worst instrument the most shining (1).

Because when the worst shames the best,
Makes it meaningless and futile,
Reinvents its deathful purpose toward life -
Reimagines its ending as beginning….

Then we can be ushered into something entirely new.
And we can, maybe, grasp a new symbology,
Understand a new language,
Grow synaptic pathways previously unheard of.

If we can do this, then perhaps the sting of our own shame and torture and personal hells
Can become something else too?


  1. 1 Cor 1:18



Poem for Leah and Rachel

The Lectionary for July 30 includes the story of Leah and Rachel and Jacob. This is a hard story for me to engage with; the patriarchy and polygamy, the treatment of these two women is sometimes more than I can see past. There is much to learn from the story, but as a (modern, feminist) woman I must acknowledge the elephant there: two young powerless women being traded by their father for field labor, without their consent, determining the course of their lives. It arouses my own sorrow for the continuing plight of women in the world.

There are times when I can engage with a difficult text seamlessly. And sometimes not. This one was a not this week. So instead, I wrote a poem. Because, as a friend of mine who is a priest says, "If you can't make it happy, make it beautiful."
 

We made you work for it
But we were worth it.
You didn’t get exactly what you wanted at first
But in the end, you were happy.

We didn’t control our fate.
We had no say in whether, or when, we were given to you.

You obviously had a favorite.
Everyone knows that.
But we served you well
For little reward.
And you did the work. You agreed to the plan.
Because we were so valuable to you.

Plan A didn’t work out -
You were given second best;
A saboteur got the better of you,
While you, in your lust, weren’t paying attention.
Plan B got you your beloved,
Who was barren for the longest,
But beautiful and graceful
And resentful.

None of this was perfect. None ideal.
But you became rich anyway, a father of many.
We were jewels among your hoard,
Breeders among your flock.
Your 14 years of labor
Paid your penance.

Who is Jacob
To complain about his inheritance?
 

Litany for Summer

This litany originally appeared on Godspace. It is a responsive prayer; congregational responses are in bold type.

 

God, we thank You for turning the earth toward the Sun .
We thank You for summer.

As the days and the light are long,
So is the Love of God:
   Endless,
   Fruitful,
   Full of possibility,
   Bursting with energy.

As growing things are awake and progressing,
So may we become awake
To Your light and to Your love:
   Making progress,
   Seizing opportunities to grow,
   Readying for harvest

As our plot on the planet faces the sun, our star,
So do we turn ourselves toward the Son
Following the Way of Christ,
Following the Way of Love,
Growing to maturity,
Spreading seeds of Good News to all.

Amen

I Interrupt This Litany of Litanies...

to give you
a poem
my dad wrote
(which I edited the tiniest bit).
 

Dying is Changing
   by Jonathan Pratt

From judgement of events
From judgement of intents
From Goods, Bads, Trues, Falses, Wrongs or Rights.
From regretted or resented
   pains felt,
   pains dealt.
From Wants, Needs, and hopeful, fearful Mights.
From me.
From we.

To peaceful awareness, unending Living.

Am I dying yet?
Am I dead yet?
The questions are the answer:
Yes, but no, not yet.