Thorwald's Cross: Easter Sunday, 2014

With wars and rumors of wars in the news, I found myself haunted this Easter by Thomas Hardy's "Channel Firing." This sonnet represents my attempt to respond in faith. Thorwald's Cross on the Isle of Man in England is a Viking stone that depicts the death of the old Norse gods as the Norsemen embraced Christianity. For a fuller discussion of this kind of symbolism, see Malcolm Guite's incomparable Faith, Hope and Poetry.  Thanks to my student and co-worker Rochelle Roots for the accompanying photo of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.

We look for resurrection in the East,

But east of east find resurrected war

In nations that proclaim the paschal feast,

Salute the cross of Sunday's risen Lord.

He laid down life and emptied out the tomb.

We cling to live and fill a million graves.

Our one-eyed Odin scatters right-hand boon

But on his blind-side takes more than he gave.

Ragnarök rises from Yggdrasil's tree,

While Calvary's Lord's unblinking, two-eyed stare

Knits love and knowledge. He can hear and see

The dying revolutionary's prayer.

We fill up graves to keep our grave unfilled,
But emptied tombs tell us how death is killed.