William Whispers In My Ear
Maybe this month, the good tomorrow, perhaps this day,
or even at the last minute, a simple joy will come. Already
I’ve made it through the night. At this stage of my life,
I’ll reserve judgment as to whether it is fate or a predestined
purpose for my suffering. Yet there are many others who suffer
more. Who am I to complain or doubt the value of my existence?
Continue reading William Whispers In My Ear by John C. Mannone
Χαίρω
Koine Greek meaning to rejoice, to be glad
It’s so easy to rejoice in times of celebration
and to turn smiles into boisterous laughter
But how do we rejoice in times of sadness,
exchange mourning for the oil of gladness,
the spirit of despair for a garment of praise,
and the ugly coverings of sackcloth & ashes
for a crown of beauty?
From a Long Line of Trees
Parable of Two Trees
A garden as large as a forest
with every kind of lovely tree
pleasant to the eye flourished.
In the center, two in particular,
stood tall:
One called Eba, a Cedar of Lebanon,
where tawny owls shared boughs
with bats. And deer rested under
its limbs, roots vining sandy soil
deep to soak up the holy river.
Broken Whelk
There’s always beauty
even in broken things.
This small whelk once held
an ocean in its chambers
before that same sea
battered down its walls
the occupant, long ago
gone, only its ghost haunts
the emptiness, the shell
lying on the shore shows
its whorls, jaggedness
smoothed with polish
of time. Morning glistens
inside the glossy pearl
white—all that is left
of its soul.
Image credit: The sea-worn whelk, collected by Finn Bille on Sanibel Island, FL, and photographed & post-processed using Toolwiz Photos with Prismart filter and with a Van Gogh effect by John C. Mannone.
From a Long Line of Trees
When I hear those words, I recall my father’s story still resounding through the ages. My father, when he cradled a most precious baby, spoke of a gentle old carpenter from Nazareth, who had fashioned a manger from the same stock that I came from—strong acacia wood planed smooth until soft enough for the king of kings. When the carpenter was done, he cried out with great pride to his wife, Mary, Bring me our son. It is finished. It is finished… It is finished!
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Editor’s Comment and Image Credit: An acacia tree in a Kenyon sunset [wallpaperflare] and silhouettes of crosses [pngwing] are combined for spiritual symbolic effects.
After the Money Changers
Jesus tosses, turns
on his rolled-out mat,
feels Jeremiah’s dream
with the baskets of figs
in front of the temple,
the good ones and the bad.
Continue reading After the Money Changers by John C. Mannone
When Fall decembers sky
and steals the warmth
from the wind, what’s left
is the cool inspiration of snow
falling on leaves of grass
as words crystallizing
on the white expanse
of the page.
Image Credit: Christmas snow background (PSD Graphics)
Five Children on a Boat
off Dauphin Island, Alabama
They say five is a figure of grace
and these children are a testimony
to that. Boisterous laughter fills
the air, drowns the squawks of sea
gulls that some of them imitate:
the swoop and hover, the taunt and
impatience for food thrown off
the stern by people in the bay-bound
boat in Alabama waters. They follow
us from shore wanting more bread,
fresh or stale, it doesn’t matter, they
are happy and unashamed to beg
food from us. We humor them,
mimicking their cries, which often
sound more like laughter.
Every 22nd of April, meteor showers out of the
constellation Lyra sometimes occur on Passover.
Vega, the brightest star in the constellation,
in Arabic means, He shall be exalted.
Before the light of creation would rise
above the horizon, shooting stars streaked
across the Passover skies over Jerusalem.
Nighthawks folded their wings, fell silent.
In unison, the olive trees stretched
their crooked branches, jabbed the dawning
sky swabbed purple & crimson. The umber
silhouette of trees, in the same silence.
A voice cried out from the wilderness
inside the holy man kneeling there, the weight of all
the children’s dreams, his brothers’ and the world’s
sin heavy on his heart. Blood seeped through,
through his pores as he languished in prayer,
fallen on his face, the taste of dirt on his lips:
Father. Please let this cup of bitterness pass!
However, not my will but yours be done.
An angel might have lifted him up, wiped his tears,
and offered cool water from the clear brook,
before fading. His close friends were still lost
in their dreams, fast asleep on the lavender grass.
A serpent slithered on the rocks with stardust
glow, coiled its leathery skin shining like jewels,
then raised its diamond head, fake smile; rattled
a hiss of lies; fangs exposed ready to strike.
But the holy one only felt the kiss of a soft wind
…before Judas came.
Image credit: Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) April 24, 2014: Lyrids in Southern Skies, Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)
Author’s Comments: The Lyrid meteor shower occurs as Earth goes through Comet Thatcher’s debris around April 22 each year, which means that sometimes the Lyrid meteor shower occurs on or around Passover. The showers are generally moderately weak (15-20/hr) but periodically Earth intersects denser portions of the cloud, and the sky can become brilliant with meteors that seem to come out of the constellation Lyra (90-100/hr). This occurs every 60 years when the other planets steer thicker parts of the dust cloud into Earth’s path. But the showers are greatly enhanced when the comet returns every 415 years and re-seeds the comet dust clouds, as in 1803 (700/hr) and in 687 BC as Zuo Zhuan had written “stars fell like rain.” Beginning with 687 BC as a reasonable starting point and stepping forward every 60 years, we learn that an enhanced Lyrid meteor shower could have occurred during the Passover in 33 AD, the possible date for Christ’s crucifixion.
