Untitled
She ascends in all her glory
her robe is virgin white and trimmed with gold
hands move like still-life albatross
cool with dew, beautiful
He came to bring fire on the earth
The master of the house had saved
His last, His finest, His funeral wine
her lips and chin are stained and drip
she's drunk her fill of wine
with dirt and blood her feet and knees are scathed
and zeal for His Father's house consumes Him
The bride is a used prostitute
a crippled whore who's been abused
She anoints Him for burial
the whore has saved her best perfume
and He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty
Listening to Jacaranda by Josh Garrels and Electroshock Blues by the Eels
I've never been one to explain my poetry, I feel that the poetry should be allowed to speak for itself and the reader should be allowed to understand the poem on a different level than the writer understands it. This is important. There are poems, however, that require a certain amount of explanation. A lot of the time poets who read their works aloud will give it a brief (or lengthy) introduction to ground the audience in what they are about to say, give them some sort of emotional stake or purchase in the poem to increase its impact. I appreciate how that might be necessary in vocal readings, but when someone is reading it for themselves, they should be allowed to encounter the poem on its own level. If a written poem needs some explanation, it should come after the poem.
Having said that, I think that this one could do with a little bit of explanation. The poem is essentially a love song about the church. It is paradoxical intentionally because the church in itself is such a paradox. On one hand we have Hosea, where God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute and then, when she leaves him and goes back to her old lifestyle, to take her back. Hosea is a powerful example of how God loves his people, Israel, but also the church. The church is the prostitute who keeps on going back to her sin, and we have plenty of problems, plenty of dark things in our past, but on the other hand the church is the bride of Christ. Though she is dirty and sinful, she is washed clean by the blood of Christ. This is essential for Christians in our post-modern world, especially younger Christians. Even though we see all these things that we don't like about the church and we see all these problems that the church has, it is absolutely and fundamentally important that we are part of the bride of Christ. So unless in the case of clear heresies, we need to do everything we can to stay in the church, to change it from the inside out yes, but not leave it because we disagree with little things the pastor says or little issues we have with authority (because issues with authority is a pretty big killer these days). We need to stop shopping around for a church that we like, we need to become committed to a community of believers. I know the metaphor sounds repetitive and cheesy, but we really do need to "plug in" to the body of Christ. God has been getting at me for the last few weeks about the importance of His church and I've been trying to write that poem for almost as long. So I'm excited to be finished it. I haven't got a title, but I hope it speaks for itself. Keep it pregnant people.
Park Ranger
