A few Original Poems for the Triduum ( Holy Week)

Happy Easter

Bob

Maundy Thursday

A few years of companionship,

exhortations, admonishments—and now

his time is at end,

his words  carefully chosen.

I sit so close I feel his breath,

I knew something was up

when he gazed  deeply into me

and with slow, deep sighs

shared his hopes,

not for himself—his time was finished.

But for me—as if he had already gone.

We sit together through his last hours

not knowing what words to say or what to do

I watch and wait, and I pray for a sign

just a tiny  miracle.

It came with his sleep, his final one.

You say “why the fuss over a little thing–

a few words of goodbye”.

He would not agree.

And neither will I  when I discover

saying my last goodbye is the start

of the greatest miracle of all.

Last words are given first place.

A mother’s wishes are fixed

in the heart.

and a fathers’ parting wisdom

will find its mark.

And a friends “New Command”

will not be forgotten.

Good Friday

I try for years during this spring- time

to identify with you.

Each year I fail –a little closer,

for I am older now

and have more wounds to show —

most of my own fault.

not like you, wounded every year by mine.

I see it more clearly this time.

I feel it  more deeply this year.

The ridicule, the abandonment. the crushed hopes

all coming closer to me each year.

Yet, never abandoning that one hope

underneath all others -the hope in the one

who made you.

I keep trying each year to understand

the pain-especially the physical pain

but like your friends

I turn away in fear that it may touch me.

They say you saw it all coming. Did you?

Why did you keep on going?

Your face they said was as hard as flint–

not to be assuaged from your intent.

Who would have blamed you

for changing tactics, circling around

coming at things a different way?

Surely not Judas, nor probably I.

The Harrowing of Hell

Above the ground all is silent

the earth stops its spinning

Dirt upon dirt slaps the wood coffin

And we feel more than one life is over

Sad, dreaming of yesterday so full of hope

It all ends in a moment, leaving unfinished

The deeds one was born to do.

While below ground tears drop and sighs exhale

Below the crust all hell breaks loose

As one as good as dead ransacks the land of the forelorn

Releasing the innocent but ignorant from their chains,

Proclaiming liberty and hope to those who had none.

The tormentors stood speechless in terror

As the one who made them now unmade them

Ending eons of evil upon these children of light

And now those putrid things can only stand and watch

As their captives are led by their captain from their rancid realm