NaPoWriMo - day three

good friday poem

only these words:

such beautiful scars.

*

that’s not enough, you say.

there must be more. tell me

about his suffering.

how his body was broken.

how everything beautiful

was marred. i refuse.

instead, let me tell you

a covenant was sealed

that day. that one day

i will kiss his nail-scarred hands,

those wounds forever

on display, both

reminder and promise.

his flesh transformed

and mantled with glory.

my inheritance.

If the Prophets Broke In by Nelly Sachs - NPM3

If the prophets broke in
through the doors of night,
the zodiac of demon gods
wound like a ghastly wreath of flowers
round the head -
rocking the secrets of the falling and rising
skies on their shoulders –

for those who long since fled in terror -

If the prophets broke in
through the doors of night,
the course of the stars scored in their palms
glowing golden –

for those long sunk in sleep –

If the prophets broke in
through the doors of night
tearing wounds with their words
into fields of habit,
a distant crop hauled home
for the laborer

who no longer waits at evening –

If the prophets broke in
through the doors of night
and sought an ear like a homeland –

Ear of mankind
overgrown with nettles,
would you hear?
If the voice of the prophets
blew
on flutes made of murdered children's bones
and exhaled airs burnt with
martyrs’ cries-
if they built a bridge of old men's dying
groans –

Ear of mankind,
occupied with small sounds,
would you hear?

If the prophets
rushed in with the storm-pinions of eternity
if they broke open your acoustic duct with the words:
Which of you wants to make war against a mystery
who wants to invent the star-death?

If the prophets stood up
in the night of mankind
like lovers who seek the heart of the beloved,
night of mankind
would you have a heart to offer?

Sachs, Nelly "If the Prophets Broke In" Burning Bright: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry. Hampl, Patricia, ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995. 105-6.