SOME FEEBLE ATTEMPTS AT POETRY
ON THE SEVEN LAST WORDS
The First Word: “Father, Forgive them for they do not know what they do!”
(This first poem is anything but feeble, and is not mine but by a dear parishioner, John Eriksen, may he rest in peace.)
All were included: the indifferent, those who slapped his face,
The Chief Priests, hidden by the cruel Centurion’s chariot.
In the distance, an incredible ultimate grace
Was besought for the self-hung Judas Iscariot.
The Second Word: “This day you shall be with me in paradise!”
A common thief, that’s all he was
Good for nothing, useless crook
Suffering excruciating pain, yet deserving his fate.
Dismiss
The King of the Jews, that’s what he is,
The creator of the heavens, his Father,
Suffering excruciating pain, the Innocent One
Jesus
Never too late to confess the Lord
The thief hears the Innocent mocked
In one last chance for charity, he calls:
Have you no fear of God?
A living faith
Life eternal.
The third word: “Woman, Behold your son! Behold your mother.”
All night long in the hospital,
She holds her child’s hand,
The doctors say it looks grim,
We’ll do whatever we can.
He feels her warmth, her presence
Her love makes the pain go away
Her sorrow is not important now
All that matters is making it to the day.
O Mary, the presence that you give,
To Jesus on the Cross,
Give now to John and all of us
Our suffering is no loss.
The One on the throne calls out to you
Proclaims you to be our mother
Help us embrace our crosses with him
Replace your son with another.
The fourth word: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
All can be endured when there is warmth within,
The sacrifice is little when the presence is great
But when abandonment is total, the soul calls out in pain
Jesus concludes the Work of the Father.
The fifth word: “I thirst”
A woman of Samaria
of repute quite deserved
heard a Jew once ask of her
for water from a well preserved.
He really didn’t want to drink
He wanted her to see
the life that she was living
was destroying reality.
She believed his words
and changed her ways
and opened a new life
that Jew had all the water he needed
from a lady who had been in strife.
So also to us
The Lord calls out
from the crucified throne
He wants water from our wells,
It’s our hearts he wants for his own.
The sixth word: “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit!”
It was his hands that created the world, and separated the waters from the land.
It was his hands that fashioned humans, and gave them the capacity to love.
It was his hands that delivered the people, and sent the evil into the sea
It was his hands that carved the law and gave the path to his own,
It was into his hands that Jesus completed his work, the work of the Father.
The seventh word: “It is finished”
Finished? Completed?
Yes
Beaten? Conquered?
No
Accomplished! Triumphant!
Jesus!