Poems for the Triduum
As the Triduum, the three days leading up to Easter, comes to a close I want to share a poem sequence I recently wrote. Like my Stations of the Cross sequence, these poems are written in the corona style where the last line of each is the first line of the next and the final line of the final poem is the first line of the first.
Blessings on this Holy Saturday. Easter is coming.
“Maundy Thursday”
He came to give us a different kind of life,
But first he had to give us a new commandment.
He showed us power doesn’t lay in might,
But in one who’s dressed in humble habiliment.
His mother said that God will exalt the lowly,
And so he knelt to wash our sin-stained feet.
He lifted up the bread and wine made holy
Before he turned our death into something sweet.
“A new command I give to you,” he said,
“That you, my little children, will love each other.”
He gave us the simple gifts of wine and bread
So we might be joined to him as sisters and brothers.
He humbled himself to overcome our loss,
And he was raised up on the bloody cross.
“Good Friday”
When he was raised up on the bloody cross,
He took on the wage of sin, our wage of death.
The Sky went black because the Light seemed lost,
As Jesus gasped his final dying breath.
This is the love he commanded us to show,
A love that only seeks the other’s good,
A love that causes the Spirit’s wind to blow
And changes bread and wine to spiritual food.
Now I must learn to love just as he did,
And walk upon my own dolorous way.
I have in me a light that should not be hid.
It is my role in life, the Gospel play.
But he was still descending down beyond;
He had to go to the lands without a sun.
“Holy Saturday”
He went down to the lands without a sun
To make his final gospel proclamation.
The devil thought his victory had come;
He didn’t understand the plan of salvation.
Death could not contain the One who Is,
And lost so many captives he thought he’d gained.
Hell was harrowed, he destroyed the city of Dis
And so the sting of Death was thus contained.
By dying Christ has built for us a bridge,
A road that no longer leads us straight to Hell,
A road that leads us far away from the edge
Through a different kind of fire that makes all things well.
But still we had to wait for another sunrise
For him to give us a different kind of life.
