Poetry Thursday: Incarnation Poem
Today’s poem comes from long time friend (and fellow blogger) Nathan Bennett. The poem fits into the Incarnation series (begun earlier this week and concluded tomorrow), and I was glad to have Poetry Thursday follow the theme. Nathan has always had a way with words that has both astounded and bewildered me; he once made a pun about something–Lord of the Rings, if memory serves–that I literally did not get until hours later. I’ve always admired him as a thinker and a friend, and it is a thrill for me to post some poetry by him. I’m sure you’ll all enjoy it. Don’t miss the author’s note following the poem, as usual. Christ Abide.
Untitled Incarnation Poem
There is no ray of hope.
Hope is dust –
dust that chafes the inner eye,
dust that suckles tears –
that is hope.
Hands grope blindly that are not eyes
and eyes are blind.
Blind eyes still feel.
Blind hands commiserate
and share their sorrow
but cannot rub out hope.
Hands grope blindly
finding a man
crucified in darkness.
The cross’ boards were sawed.
Saws drop dust.
Eyes blind and dead in darkness
are raised in light
to see a man
both king and priest in one –
both God and man in one.
A note from the author:
This poem, like the one other poem that I ever remember publicly distributing, was conceived when I was working on something else. It is about how Jesus gives us hope that sticks with us. Since you have the basic meaning, I will not explain the metaphors until you wrestle with them yourself. I spend a lot of time thinking about how crummy Christian contemporary music is. Here is a go at positively worshiping God rather than saying how badly other people worship. A lot of people say that their words fail to capture God’s glory and his majesty. While this is true, do they fail to die trying? English is a well developed language that even has a finely tuned Christian vocabulary to aid worship, given that much of classical English literature is overwhelmingly Christian. You can have a go at my worship now, and hopefully we can proceed together into fuller worship of God.
