A friend of mine wrote this poem three years ago and recently shared it with me. “Splinters of the Cross” makes for a good meditation today, Good Friday.
Splinters of the Cross
Bolek Kabala
May 15, 2013
Like men hounded, harried
we pressed on, pelted by the rain
The hulk of the shipwreck behind us, obscured by the tempest
What demon had driven us to capsize here?
Our clothes were tattered
blood flowing from the pricks of brambles and thorns
the gleam of a wolf’s eye in the darkness
the chant of a crazed medicine man in the void
Lightning tore the sky asunder
And we started up the hills, the rock, the crag
Barren
Desolate
Crying for mercy, we struggled on
But wrath was upon us
It drove us onwards, and upwards
Until we could find a way forward only on our knees
Lord, will you not intercede on behalf of a sinner?
De Profundis
Then the sky was stilled
The sulfurous acridity of insomnia lifted
And lo, we beheld it
The Cross
The Cross atop the Rock of our madness and despair
A shaft of light broke through the clouds
It was a cross – there could no longer be any doubt
Its splinters beckoned
A creeping vine burst forth, and I exhaled
Yes, maybe green would grow here again