“Toute vue des choses qui n’est pas étrange est fausse.”
– Paul Valéry
Three Days: Part Three
“Not The Empty Tomb” by R. S. Thomas
Not the empty tomb
but the uninhabited
cross. Look long enough
and you will see the arms
put on leaves. Not a crown
of thorns, but a crown of flowers
haloing it, with a bird singing
as though perched on paradise’s threshold.
We have over-furnished
our faith. Our churches
are as limousines in the procession
towards heaven. But the verities
remain: a de-nuclearised
cross, uncontaminated
by our coinage; the chalice’s
ichor; and one crumb of bread
on the tongue for the bird-like
intelligence to be made tame by.
Three Days: Part Two
from Inferno Canto IV.52-63 (Sayers’ translation)
“When I was newly in this state,” said he,
“I saw One come in majesty and awe,
And on his head were crowns of victory.
Our great first father’s spirit He did withdraw,
And righteous Abel, Noah who built the ark,
Moses who gave and who obeyed the Law,
King David, Abraham the Patriarch,
Israel with his father and generation,
Rachel, for whom he did such deeds of mark,
With many another of His chosen nation;
These did He bless; and know, that ere that day
No human soul had ever seen salvation.”
Three Days: Part One
“Crow Blacker Than Ever” by Ted Hughes
When God, disgusted with man,
Turned towards heaven.
And man, disgusted with God,
Turned towards Eve,
Things looked like falling apart.
But Crow Crow
Crow nailed them together,
Nailing heaven and earth together–
So man cried, but with God’s voice,
And God bled, but with man’s blood.
Then Heaven and earth creaked at the joint
Which became gangrenous and stank–
A horror beyond redemption.
The agony did not diminish.
Man could not be man, nor God God.
The agony
Grew.
Crow
Grinned
Crying: ‘This is my creation,’
Flying the black flag of himself.
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