The Beginning of April: Poetry! Triduum! Snow?

National Poetry Month begins today. We enter into the Triduum as well.

Here is a poem for both:

Gethsemane

Mary Oliver

The grass never sleeps.

Or the roses.

Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,

and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,

and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did,

maybe the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move, maybe

the lake far away, where once he walked as on a

blue pavement,

lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not

keep that vigil, how they must have wept,

so utterly human, knowing this too

must be a part of the story.

And poem in the form of a song:

First Aid Kit (a favorite of mine) singing Leonard Cohen’s Sisters of Mercy.

And, of course, since today is April Fool’s Day…

May your experience of Triduum be meaningful, however you are able to experience it this year.

Let us walk in the holy presence.