POEMS for LENT • MYSTERION

"Mysterion" by Troy's Work Table.

Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.

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"Mysterion is / never elsewhere, ever looms, indivisible / and here, and compasses a journey one / assumes as it is tendered on a spoon." —from "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Mysterion" by Scott Cairns, as found in Philokalia

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In Philokalia, Scott Cairns has five "Adventures in New Testament Greek" poems scattered throughout the first two sections of the collection. These poems examine theological terms—metanoia, hairesis, nous, mysterion, and apocatastasis. I originally intended to read "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Metanoia" since it covers the very Lenten concept of metanoia, "turning back," repentance. But it didn't have any good imagery, being too cerebral, too abstract.

By contrast, "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Mysterion" has more concrete imagery, but I couldn't quite capture it. So, instead, I attempted to draw what is hidden yet right in our midst, and what felt true to Cairns's poem. I drew how I envision the Lamb from the book of Revelation.

I've taken a few liberties with the vision of John of Patmos. There are still seven eyes, but there are no (seven) horns. And there are not seven "lamps" but three candles, a trinitarian representation. Additionally, as per one of my "black psalms," Lamb is a lampstand!

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This Lamb is mysterion—a paradox, a mystery, a balance of opposites. The Lamb is a sacrifice, a bearer of suffering, just as the goat of "Buzkashi," just as the cow of "The Winter Cow."

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There are things we cannot understand, that we cannot intellectually apprehend, but that we can experience, that we can "feel" on some level. Even though we cannot comprehend them, we can encounter their manifestations in the world of the enfleshed and tangible.

Like in the language of poems. Or in religious rituals. Or in art.