i like to look around to see
if there is any evidence in life
of the resurrected lord on easter monday
a child on the edge of language
points to the sound of frogs
singing in a nearby swamp
a man in pain speaks his mind
laughter over foibles in the ranks of monks
the sound of the voice of a friend
an unexpected note from a sister
one green budding ladyslipper
on the bank of a cold swollen creek
a blog post
louder than a bomb
on sillimans' schtick
a young poet from new jersey
with a cookie in his mouth
utters kristoz anastazios
i heard
ziztohsz nwhastazio pif pif
just after midnight
a day unfolding in hope
like any other day
only better
a new icon in the sanctury
mary magdalen at the tomb
christ emerging hands marked with nailholes
she kneels she is beautiful
and he knows in his eyes
this love is here to stay
i can pray before this
and i see the prayer that went into it
a benedictine sister from jerusalem
with only this to do
something beautiful
that a man might pray
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4 comments:
beautiful poem
where in the sanctuary
is the icon displayed?
is there always one present
that changes with the seasons?
i don't remember noticing any
when i was there
it was just recently received as a gift or perhaps a travelling monk made a good deal in the back yard of a woman's monastery i never know about these things
but the thing is extraordinary
i've been drawn back to it
more than once
and my eyes open wide to see it
it rests on a stand
about 5 ft high
the lighting above is not real good
but by day it is luminous
even in the gray shadows of the concrete walls of the mud tent made by breuer
right near the altar
right near the place
where the readings are read from
on sunday
i forgot the name of the place
ambo or something
there's a few other things
marking the days after easter sunday
now the green blade rises
a tune ringing in my mind
indeed he is
alleluia
jh
in recent years an icon sits in the niche
just below the ambo
and i do sense that the icon moves with the seasons
and the particular feasts
our father nathaniel is our
resident
icon painter and scholar
he has worldwide icon connections
he's a powerful man indeed
humble here
but reaching out in a powerful way
jh
"signs of someone risen"
Where? Maybe it...was the Easter-egg quake--. j-k. Nice poem, Fr. jh
The politics of icons--
and iconoclasm--interests me. Napoleon tried to
blast the Sphinx into rubble. Traditional muslims consider any representations of humans a type of blasphemy, and also destroy/deface images/sculpture (seen in the ancient...greek statues with faces mutilated...).
When the turks overcame Constantinople, the imams melted down the golden crosses of the big cathedral (and put minarets up)--in one instance made a ..doorstep out of them. Yikes.
That ancient joker the buddha objected to the excessive hindu imagery and pantheism, I believe (though later some of the buddhist schools nearly matched the hindus for the symbols and deities---you don't see as much in the southern theraveda, excepting the buddha himself--)
During the Reformation rioters tore down icons and religious scenes, even yanking stuff down from cathedrals. Iconoclasm
on the whole seems somewhat puritanical, though not completely w-o reason; a painting however beautiful is not the ding-an sich --the puritan-protestants apparently considered the icons a sign of aristocratic decadence, as they did when shutting down theatres (tho' visiting a cathedral can be a sublime experience. Aachen, Charlemagne's throne...or the massive Koelner Dom. But somewhat overwhelming at the same time...a few kings and queens buried in the crypt, VW sized bells, gargoyles, spires, etc and yr ready for Dunkel Alt)
The votive candles and shrines in the old iglesias are evocative, but alas I think they often serve as a sort of delusion, as much as the pilgrimmages to Lourdes or Fatima are...
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