for Johanna
D.A.Vid
BC
Twenty-one Eve
Twenty-three The Fall
Twenty-five Isaiah
Twenty-seven Judith
Twenty-nine Joel
AD
Twenty-two Resurrection
Twenty-four Supper of thousands
Twenty-six Annunciation
Twenty-eight Gethsemane
Thirty A paralytic
TWENTY-ONE
So Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. Yahweh God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:22-23
That leafless tree against which Adam sleeps prefigures Cross,
Like Haman’s. No moth no beast is pinned, and Adam’s in
His prime. So fitting Eve is called forth from His rib! The child
Herself is purity, a wonder; no hatred, miscreance in sylvan scene
For God Jehovah, looming large, is gentle Master of a yellow
Beard! So urgently benevolent, as if all turmoil’s spent, a proper
Gott that’s lent, and now compassion! Here Yahweh’s calm, if
Such can linger on. No oak, no hammer, subtle, torn, no nails, no
Thorn, shriek, yawn. In time the beard is shorn, imperfect CEO
Albeit cannot see it in the Book, you’d care to look, no trace
This far. At least of Judas. Such innocence is prior to Adam’s lapse,
Is Paradise perhaps, no Fall from Grace, no love misplaced.
TWENTY-TWO
Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
Mark 16:14-15
Was not enough He’d shown His risen form to Magda [from
Whom He’d cast out devils] or even the two upon the road,
None would believe them, but then to all Eleven at their table;
A radiance they could mistake from none; was utter! Doubter
Thomas inserting fingers in God’s wounds to satisfy a lingering
Mistrust of his own senses? Whence came this spritely Son and
Whence His brilliant fire? That Master sure from vast occasion
Certain to all but death He’d come again, would rise from Hell
Before erupting toward God’s grace? There at the touch and
Taste of each and every was His face. There His mien and
Manner, certain there, though billions to come would gather
Heads to shake in disbelief. Was truly sad indeed their grief.
TWENTY-THREE
Then the serpent said to the woman, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked.
Genesis 3:4-7
What misery burns our heart ’D render serpent woman, that
GUILT itself’s menage a trois, dour Dalliance in WHA . . . ?
Where snake coils Tree, a gap in she, a cleft bereft of mercy!
And note transfiguration of the groin commenced with Eve’s
Odd God menstruation, furthered every inching into Lapse.
The character of Phallus, sin: petals? Ragged foreskin? That
Human hang here more correct, anatomy to sweat direct, sex
To sect: just eye the act! Investigate Eve’s pursèd cursed Lips!
And hands of each? Such desperate grips! Lapsed fruit laps
Tips? Is Scripture’s trickster’s merely slut? Perhaps awaiting
Satan? The script here gorges cut and root, God’s rage to
Boot, from grossly grim to Stabat Mater! Quasi Jesu Satyr?
TWENTY-FOUR
Then he ordered them to get all the people together in a group on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. . . . . . .They all ate as much as they wanted. . . . . . Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Mark 6:39-44
That first occasion Jesu fed the masses were 10 thousand
Gathered to receive, and fed indeed by discourse if not victual,
Though all indeed by dusk displayed odd greed. “Dear sire,
We’d need some hundreds gold denarii to defray the cost, and here
You’d have us draw full measure from the paltry sum we’ve laid
There at the base? No matter power, will cannot erase impoverished.”
“Come, men of little faith!” replied the Master, spreading graceful
Hands above the weave. “Reach in, it shall suffice.” That close
Of day the thousands ate their full. And none complained
And none was ill; they ate their fill! Even the evening WAS
Truly celebration, a hand of warmth on belly, thighs, some
Miracle of sunset for their eyes—indeed they ate their fill.
TWENTY-FIVE
Israel, your people may be like the sand on the seashore, but only a remnant will return. A destruction has been decreed that will bring inexhaustible integrity. Yes, throughout the country the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth will carry out the destruction he has decreed.
Isaiah 10:22-23
WHAT TART is this to quake Isaiah’s heart? Or brighter
Face observes from grace? To shake his thoughtful Calm.
This prophet’s only mildly stirred, has lived the Word, the
Crimson leak of God the Son! “Come, quiet in my chamber,
Lad; I’ve had enough, I’m simply had; or stressed to think, ‘D scent
Derision. This prophet tills some mournful fields. Some message this,
A child’s he wields, or wiles a whiles from wench to wrench, a
Greater Master’s blanch or leafless Tree. This miser mines a larger
Misery, some billion billion souls in pain, or gentler rain on blossom,
Root, from mystic shoot to quiet prodding. Your God is Godding.
I seek the Oddling, no small mensch as thee, no savory Three,
Biblical as bubbles in a hiss? Come kiss? Absurd!” The Word?
TWENTY-SIX
Mary said to the angel, “But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?” “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” the angel answered “and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.”
Luke 1:34-35
Enunciate Annunciation? Luke’s preface hardly stirs the
Deed. 2 thousand years contrive to bring us closer, 2,000
Years fruition come to seed. Mary, sweet innocence, there
Out about implanting usual field, in hurry reluctant leaving
Work as storm approached, a time to yield, thus hastening
Past the stubble of an elder year, there striding home, she
Paused at apple tree. What surge so sudden this, what bent?
As if magic potion lent, so giddy the maiden went, unsteady
Knees, and knelt and lay as if to somehow please some newly
Rendered force, some urge and shudder for sudden came
Upon her. No rape was this, all proper honor, full wonder
There in the stubble, grass and dust, a fructifying virgin lust?
TWENTY-SEVEN
Then, rushing out to the men, [Bagoas] . . . shouted, “Those slaves have duped us! One Hebrew woman has brought shame on the House of Nebuchadnezzar. Holofernes is lying dead on the ground, with his head cut off!” When they heard this, the leaders of the Assyrian army tore their tunics in consternation, and the camp rang with their wild cries and their shouting.
Judith 14:16-18
Judith and her maid heft General’s head, a spasm, bloat on
The rumpled bed his arms and legs akimbo, neck a carmine
Leak erupted into Hell from swinish sleep and likely satiation.
A caste of ethical frustration, sweet Judith having traded soul
And flesh for a bloody wayward King! Even lust for least, a
Drunken feast, that Ding an sich, that greatness? And then
Those nights spewed prayer aloft to God Jehovah, fasted to
Fell a Prince? And lout he was, massive bearded toad, odd
Slight wench he rode, no maidenhead! For widow she was
That wedded fact the dazzling proudest daughter of her act
.
What courage that [no slice suffice] tryst with bearded tyrant?
What zeal? for gentler sex her charm, what hex? fierce Tigress.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Then he took Peter and James and John with him. And a sudden fear came over him, and great distress. And he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here, and keep awake.” And going on a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by.
Mark 14:33-35
In the garden Gethsemane, He lies prone into soil, utters
3-fold the prayer: “Dear Yahweh, if You’re there, incline a loving
Ear, I am betrayed! Let this cup pass Me by. Yet let it be as You,
Not I would have it.” And Gott? A silence! “Let this cup pass
Me by. Yet let it be as You, Not I would have it.” And Gott?
A silence! The scent of broken earth, a fragmentary birth.
The darker, sucaryl taste of blood. They have eaten such since
Selfsame Flood. “Dear Yahweh, if You’re there . . . ” Perhaps my
Lapse. This band of followers sleep again through all my pain. I
Pray, or speak? Again. Iscariot leads the way. My thought simply
Him today; what less can misery say? He eats his ration. And turns
The others toward themselves, his passion. They clamp my hands!
TWENTY-NINE
“Awake, drunkards, and weep!
All you who drink wine lament
for that new wine: it has been dashed
from your lips. . . . . . . .
Mourn like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for her young man betrothed to her.
Oblation and libation have vanished
from the house of Yahweh.”
Joel 1:5-9
This Joel breathes fire bleeds ash and coal, a conflagration
Of all soul, ragged shriek, no edge hard on. FOR prophets
Thrust with heady brawn, a Braille of man’s release, a Grail
Of tease. Proclaim heart’s ache, and oven waves perdition.
No whimper blanches soul from whisper’s sister, crone or
Gaol, a stitch, a catch. Deprives its lives. All type belies. ‘Tis
Judgment. All goody’s gaudy fodder-larder. Nurture guards
Her crimson leak of which few temperate men might speak,
Just such as Joel, from curst to banter, all fond intention
Coilèd at her. “A Lordly matter, Justice, trust us,” Joel repeats,
Repeats, ribbed jets of ice, the nails and slice, the wounds,
The lamentation. Here thus the end of even, even Eden.
THIRTY
But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, “What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralyzed man—“I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home.
Luke 5:22-25
They were stalled then at Capernaum in a mass that numbered
Thousands, had sought refuge in a farmhouse to eat what
Gave of supper, the boisterous mob crowding even the very
Door: that no one could come in. Among those sheltered
With the holy, several strangers, Pharisees and scribes who’d
Prove their skepticism had foundation, much as Jesu guessed;
Voices on the roof now being parted at the southern edge,
And then, a view of evening sky. “Here, Jesu, is your son,”
The voice that greeted from above. “Your paralytic son.” Christ
Knelt. “Child, your sins are now forgiven!” Blaspheme to common
Sight? “In sanction of God’s gift, stand now and walk!” Stripling
Gathered to try the door what’s more depart; was pity. Or?
2014-17
David Swartz [D.A. Vid] born in 1939, lives in New Jersey. “David Swartz is a poet who shouts into the Void but who is heard perhaps only by God…” (E. Sokolovsky. “The Great Poet”. “Slovo\Word” #91).
