resurrection – Mary Harwell Sayler

Good Friday

A sword
slashes the sky.
The gash thunders.
Inside the Temple,
the veil in front of
the Holy of Holies
rips apart.

My heart enters.

…

Impassioned by Christ

Gethsemane –
and i am a pebble
pressing against His knee
as He kneels in the garden.

i am a stripe on His back
when He’s beaten
thirty-nine times.
Yes, count them –

thirty-nine times.

i am a thorn
in His crown,
a nail
in His palm,
a cave
where, lifeless,
He’s lain.

i am a hollow
space, an empty
shelf, an unoccupied
self
absent at His revival –
but filled
with passion
at His arrival.

i am forgiven.

I Am Risen.

…

Resurrection

It was finished.
There was nothing left to do
but take down Jesus’ body
and hide it quickly
from mind, from view.

The terror of the tomb
closed the matter,
once for all,
wrapping sin
for its descent
into down-falling darkness
where never light had been.

Even from the Upper Room
no one had known our own
souls would be exhumed.

But Christ arose.
And with Him angels rolled
away the tombstone,
shroud, and doubt –
releasing all
who wanted out.

Tag: resurrection