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Sunday 8 April 2012

Questions for Easter Sunday Morning



What if the stone had moved itself -
the question Hugh MacDiarmid posed
(but chose to place it on our lips,
not having thought it through himself)?
The ultimate? Impossible?
The resurrection we await? *

What if all true? What would that change?
That Nature can suspend its laws -
so science, man's great edifice,
is doomed to tumble into dust?
What kind of resurrection, that?
What dead ideas are raised to life?

If stone and other minerals
could stir themselves, be animate...
perhaps they have such force innate...
perhaps there's something in the world
that holds them back from their true selves,
that works against this broader Life.

And was it that this anti-life
was shaken into disarray
by Christ's three cataclysmic days?
The rending of the temple veil
had marked the end of ritual law.
Earthquakes, the rending of the rocks

and total darkness all conspire
to plant the thought that maybe there
were some laws in abeyance then,
and other laws as natural
as those we know came into play -
and might again, come the right day.

..............................................................

*See here (The quote come near the end of the poem.)

10 comments:

Windsmoke. said...

Reminds me of how fragile our world is if we didn't have gravity then everything would tumble to dust :-).

kaykuala said...

What with all these happenings that cannot be explained. Providence's hand in all its episodes, that's why! God is great, Dave! Without question!

Hank

Janine Bollée said...

Good morning,
Somehow the tension that was with me all this past week [whipped up by Bach no doubt] has suddenly subsided this morning. Strange, but it happens most years.
Can we compare the force and strenght of ice to that of rock?
Your poetry never fails to set me thinking.

A Cuban In London said...

What if, Dave, what if? That's why, although atheist to the core, I can't side with the Richard Dawkins of this world. Religion (and not the organised type) still captures the imagination with its myths and tales. I may not believe them, but they enrich me, culturally, personally and even professionally.

Many thanks for your questions. I'm afraid I've got no answers.

Greetings from London.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave. A little frightening this (!)--I get very nervous thinking of lurking cataclysm--but well done poem. K.

L. Edgar Otto said...

Dave,

May all your chocolate bunnies not be hollow :-)

The PeSla

Anonymous said...

Interesting piece of poetic muse Dave. Very interesting.

Dave King said...

Windsmoke
Indeed. If the poem does that, I'msatisfied. Thanks for saying.

Hank
Agreed - but it would be good to be sure of more than that.

aprille
You'll have to try a Bach-free Easter - try Benjamin Britten's Easter music or The Way to the Tomb.

A Cuban in London
Exactly. The big question, whether you are a believer or not. Always the "What if?" Thanks for the thought.

manicddaily
Agreed, a scary business.

ThePeSla
Hi and welcome to my blog. Thanks for the nicest thing anyone has said to me this morning!

John
Good to know you thought so. Thanks.

Janine Bollée said...

You've got mail.

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely portrait both of your grandfather and the suburban life. It reads like a story--actually, it reads like a bit of film. It is very vivid. K.