Easter
Easter —
For me, the humanity was wrapped up
in the swaddling cloths,
that weaving of dust
that returns to dust,
warp of the born that must then
be borne, the thread-bared–
linen holding to its folds
like a clasp of fingers, ribs,
as if even the unsewn strived
for the shape of flesh, bone, forgiveness–
****************************
Here’s another poem for April 2015, National Poetry Month (I think my fifth). This one has 55 words and is posted for the Real Toads prompt hosted by the wonderful Kerry O’Connor. The pic was taken by me of a stained glass window in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It snowed much of last night and all day long in the mountains where I live. The good part is that I went skiing. The bad part is that I went skiing. (I am a rather terrified skier, who also finds it trying to have to focus on keeping upright, when I want to go off in one of my habitual dazes. But I survived!) I wish you all a happy day.
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Tags: April 2015 National Poetry Month, Easter poem, flash 55, humanity demands compassion poem, it's all in wrapped up in the swaddling cloths poem, manicddaily
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ManicDDaily 
April 5, 2015 at 8:09 pm
HappyEaster
April 5, 2015 at 8:41 pm
Thank you, Charles. You too. k.
April 5, 2015 at 9:13 pm
So awesome you could go skiing. Maybe some swaddling clothes would feel good right about now. Blessings!
April 5, 2015 at 10:18 pm
I love how the threads connect and you tied it in a bow~ Happy Easter! I am jealous of the thought of skiing.
April 5, 2015 at 11:09 pm
Strong and unusual symbol of the Easter story. Beautifully penned (or typed!) as always.
April 6, 2015 at 12:19 am
I’d liked to have been skiing, k. But since I have given way to my troubled knee (joint replacement) in my golfing life, probably skiing would be off limits for me. I never did fall on skis, nor roller skates (well except for my ex whom I met at the city’s best rink, the one with a real organ and a human playing it). That fall final hurt me big time.
I’ve peeked at your “star ???” prompt. I will sleep on it, I like stars.
..
April 6, 2015 at 12:51 am
If it is at all possible to remember the humanity of Christ after an elapsing of 2000 years, then you have done so. This image of martyrdom strikes me far more than any ‘He is risen’ viewpoint.
April 6, 2015 at 1:58 am
as an aside, I wish I had ‘saved’ my pen today for your prompt. not sure if I have another star in me…
as to yours, I agree with Kerry. and as to skiing? wow… ~
April 6, 2015 at 4:15 am
I am very sorry about the prompt! Maybe you can write about no stars left in you? That’s xertainly fine with me.
April 6, 2015 at 4:54 am
Happy APRIL, Karin, it’s April!! GAH. I spent the weekend, as I have spent the entire winter, wrapped in sweaters and freezing. Oh, well. xoxo and now I’m thinking about stars… M.
April 6, 2015 at 7:26 am
We had lovely flurries at 3600 feet .. Mt. Bachelor was blessed with much more at 10,000+ feet. Happy day for all concerned.
April 6, 2015 at 10:49 am
For me, the cloth that surrounds this infant seems to waver into spirit, the spirit that wraps humanity and which is so often dusty and so tightly woven that it feels like a skin and so does not get its due, but clothes our nakedness regardless…or perhaps the humanity beneath the winding sheets of a spirit that must bear, indeed, seeks to bear, so much. A very magnetic poem, k–it pulls the iron filings of ideas in, and draws them like an etch a sketch. One of the best 55’s I’ve ever read, and they are often, for some reason, very very good.
April 6, 2015 at 10:58 am
Thanks–yes, I wanted to get at that continuity–swaddling clothes to those winding cloths–hard to think of in a 55 without going into abstraction as I did–
I may think about this one further at some point, without quite adhering to limit–I had an end line re mother, but it just seemed so flippant. Always hard to know without time to let it sink in, I think. k.
On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 11:49 AM, ManicDDaily wrote:
>
April 6, 2015 at 10:59 am
Meaning I went more into abstraction than I wanted because one gets delighted with the compression that allows–harder to describe (briefly) physical actions–k.
On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 11:58 AM, Karin Gustafson wrote:
> Thanks–yes, I wanted to get at that continuity–swaddling clothes to > those winding cloths–hard to think of in a 55 without going into > abstraction as I did– > > I may think about this one further at some point, without quite adhering > to limit–I had an end line re mother, but it just seemed so flippant. > Always hard to know without time to let it sink in, I think. k. > > On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 11:49 AM, ManicDDaily > wrote: > >>
April 6, 2015 at 1:23 pm
wow! Excellent!!!
April 6, 2015 at 2:56 pm
That is an amazing piece of stained glass. I really like this poem, especially “warp of the born that must then be borne.” Clever.