"Unholy Sonnet" by Troy's Work Table.
Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.
---
"All lengths of gut are pasture, all membrane / Peels back and off like ripe persimmon skin." —from "Unholy Sonnet 9" by Mark Jarman, as found in Questions for Ecclesiastes
---
Upon reading this poem, all I could envision was the anatomical drawings of Andreas Vesalius in his De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body).
---
This particular "Unholy Sonnet" is a play on the "Collect for Purity" from the Book of Common Prayer—"Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden..."
---
We are stories read by the divine. Nothing is hidden. All is seen.
---
We are called to turn back toward God in the same way that the comets follow their courses. But this is no clockwork universe. This is a God in relationship with humanity. Even though we are seen and known, there is still choice available to us.
---
We may not hear God's voice in this unholy sonnet, but we do see God's handiwork in the beauty and complexity of God's creation, especially in those made in God's image.
---
And, for being "unholy sonnets," these particular poems will feel familiar to those who entertain faith in the God of Judaism and Christianity. The language borrows heavily from the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the traditions that have arisen to worship that same God. But the poems are wholly Jarman's, which may be why they "aren't" holy.
---
Thank God for the questions of the poets!
No comments:
Post a Comment