Category Archives: Lent

Drawing my sword, I meant to say: All this I’ll do, and more, for you; Show me the battles, where the fights rage, Tell me! – anything, I will gladly do. Yet it was not enough, not what you desired: The sword slicing right through Malchus’ ear. You stayed my hand, pushed my sword toContinue reading “Put Away Your Sword (Lent Poems 9)”

is expected: the customary greeting, the place so familiar (we’ve been here before) and his eyes unsurprised at me or the soldiers who hang back now, none too discretely, behind, awaiting the signal, and he too, somehow, watching my move, always ahead and yet biding his time. And then, we have action: the moment ofContinue reading “Lent Poems 8: The Kiss”

Gethsemane And in the dark a kneeling man, Arms outstretched, Beads of sweat and blood comingled: Father if this cup might pass… Friends asleep while keeping watch; Amid the cries for mercy, some Lucid strains of prayer for them Who cannot keep from sleeping now: Not for some swift rescue plan From high above, aContinue reading “Gethsemane (Lent Poems 7)”

The wind was thick about me, and in my mouth the taste of bread dipped in bitter herbs, his eyes like firm-set stones, his words like needles, prodding, prompting: Do it quickly, what you’re about to do; the wind as it blew disguised those words that lodged themselves into my burning ears. I walked, andContinue reading “And it was night (Lent Poems 6)”

And so Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and declares that they are clean, though not all of them. One of them will betray him that very night. Iscariot He sat, the water splashing about his feet, the dust of the day now gone, though not all, and when the bread came to be passed andContinue reading “Iscariot (Lent Poems 5)”

This one follows the story from Tuesday’s post. The story goes on to tell of Jesus sharing the Passover meal with his friends, and arriving at the dining room to find an awkward social faux pas has been committed. The Dust and the Bowl All things under him, He looked: The room prepared, The tableContinue reading “The Dust and the Bowl (Lent Poems 4)”

I’m doing my best to keep up with my rigorous poetry-writing schedule, and am currently working on today’s offering. However, here is a poem I prepared earlier (in January) which I intend to include when I put my Lent poems together. It fits better into the narrative flow than the poem for today – soContinue reading “The Kernel (Lent Poems 3)”

I’m currently not exactly on track with my challenge to write 40 poems for Lent, but here is today’s offering. It takes the story of Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem and goes from there. Battle Cry (Hosannah) Hosanna! Blessed is the king (Behold him come, Humble and riding on A donkey, on the colt OfContinue reading “Battle Cry (Lent Poems 2)”

It’s now the Christian season of Lent, the forty days of preparation beginning (roughly) with Shrove Tuesday/Ash Wednesday and finishing on Easter Sunday; and I have set myself the fairly ludicrous task of having, by the end of Lent, a collection of forty poems, one for each day of the season. I’ve got a headContinue reading “Lenten Poems 1: Spring”