Nobel Prize Clerihew

Tags

Blowin' in the Win', Bob Dylan, clerihew, Nobel Prize for Literature, Stockholm

(Bob Dylan onstage at Azkena Rock Festival, 26/6/10

Alberto-Cabello: image  Creative Commons)

 

Bob Dylan,

why were you so unwillin’

to accept your Nobel Prize for Literature, in Stockholm?

Maybe you believe Blowin’ in the Win’ ain’t that great a pome?

Via Crucis- Stations of the Cross

Tags

Atonement, Church of the Flagellation, Gethsemane, John Paul II, Joseph of Arimathea, Judas betrayal, Last Supper, Lune poetic form, myrrh, Peter Denial, Pilate, Roman Catholic, Simon the Cyrenian, Stations of the Cross, The King of the Jews, Veronica, Via Crucis

(Church of the Flagellation- 20/9/2010;

photo by Berthold Werner)

 

I have produced my own Stations of the Cross– fourteen in number,

which is traditional.  However, I have omitted the three ‘stumblings’

and Veronica.  I think I follow recent Roman Catholic editing on

some of this.

The Atonement is my focus and so I have not made the last Station

into a Resurrection.  I think that would be more of a Via Lucis.

( I am not a Roman Catholic, so feel that I can be more independent in

my artistic endeavour.)  I don’t start with Gethsemane, or The Last

Supper, or Judas’ betrayal, or Peter’s denial.  My idea was to concentrate

on 14 episodes in the narrative and I tried to find the quintessence of

the moment by creating 14 lunes, a variation on a poetic form invented

by Robert Kelly, which I have read about.  I use 3-5-3 syllables, so my stanzas

are very condensed and intense.  ( Kelly uses 5-3-5)

Anyway, see what you think:

 

I

Then Pilate

delivered Jesus

to the crowd.

 

II

 

The soldiers

stripped Him; mocked Him with

a thorn crown.

 

III

 

And Simon,

the Cyrenian,

bore His cross.

 

IV

 

He walked:

two malefactors

beside Him.

 

V

 

O Daughters

of Jerusalem,

weep no more.

 

VI

 

He refused

wine, mingled with myrrh,

though thirsty.

 

VII

 

Pilate placed

‘King of the Jews’

above Him.

 

VIII

 

Chief priests,

scribes and elders mocked

Him: Come down!

 

IX

 

His clothing

was divided up,

into lots.

 

X

 

Jesus said:

John, take good care of

my mother.

 

XI

 

He then drank

vinegar and gall

from a sponge.

 

XII

 

His head bowed;

He gave up the ghost.

It’s over.

(Jesus on the cross, St Raphael’s Cathedral,

Dubuque, Iowa. Feb 2006. Jesster 79- Commons Wiki)

 

XIII

 

His side, once

speared, issued forth blood

and water.

 

XIV

 

Taken down,

Joseph had Him placed

in his tomb.

 

Overkill

Tags

Arrest of Christ, Gethsemane, Simon Bening

(The Arrest of Christ: Simon Bening (Flemish)

c1525-30 lido.getty.edu-gm-obj4307

Source:LgHwog18kmephw@google Cultural Institute)

 

Hands bound;

neck in a halter-

overkill?

Come What May

Tags

Isabella Breviary, St Barbara, white martyrdom

(Isabella Breviary. St Barbara.

Image: M Moleiro, Editor Barcelona Spain)

 

Martyrdom?

I just lose myself

in a book.

Lapping It Up

Tags

Book of Hours, British Library, Golf Book

(MS 24098 British Library- Golf Book of Hours)

 

Storks mating…

She’s lapping this up,

like my dog.

Class Divide

Tags

Book of Hours, harrowing, marbles, Simon Bening, Use of Rome

(September from ‘Book of Golf’, British Library.  Book of Hours for Use of Rome)

 

Some people

muck about; play games

while we work.

Bedford Book of Hours- Tower of Babel

Tags

Bedford Book of Hours, Henry VI, Linguistics, Tower of Babel

(Wikipaedia.  Image British Library)

 

Reach the sky!

Speak in many tongues,

future king!

 

(a gift for the 9 year old future Henry VI

from The Duchess, in 1430)

 

Anne, Duchess of Bedford Kneeling before St Anne

Tags

Bedford Hours, Duchessof Bedford, haiku, St Anne

(Wikimedia Commons

from British Library)

 

The Duchess

kneels, surrounded by

three husbands.

Temptation: a Haiku

Tags

Duc de Berry, First Sunday Lent, haiku, Limbourg, Mehun-sur-Yevre, Temptation of Christ

Most lovely

Mehun-sur-Yevre:

so tempting.

Upon Westminster Bridge

Tags

2017, 22nd March, profanity, Westminster Bridge, Wordsworth Upon Westminster Bridge

March 22nd,2017

Earth has not shown anything more evil;

traumatised all those who would stumble by

a sight so shocking in its travesty.

This city, plunged in darkness, drew a veil

on those who ventured out to breathe, to live:

now still on bloodied pavements.  Strangers try

to open airways; paramedics cry.

Parliament questions what it can achieve.

Daylight was to rise on a new carnage.

Someone denied his humanity

yet, as has been said, in the old adage:

there’s nothing new at all. Profanity

ever explodes in pointless destruction,

but somehow, with more violence, in our age.