from HOLY SONNETS

By Marc di Saverio  

A two-sonnet sequence, with video following the text…

for Paul di Saverio

1

And now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near

and Judas practiced kissing on his hand

and Jesus prayed and cheered the gypsy band

of fiery-eyed foreseers without fear

setting on its way again, like the sun,

blazing forth now, letting Jesus steer

it with trails of greenery that even

stunned the last-born baby of the mere

caravan.  He turned the rocks

to streams that rushed then flowered

the deserts ahead of these roamers free to endure

their familiar empire’s gloomy future.

And as Jesus unlocked his eyes with Iscariot

he was arrested, yelling to the gypsies: ramble on!

2

Jesus exclaimed to the high priest who struck

him: Freely thinking Man, so you think only you can

have a thought on earth where verve is bursting

inside everything, you with the forces and freedom

to command a cosmos absent while you plan?!

Revere the spirit inside the insect, Man!

know each flower’s a soul that faces up to our

one mother at dawn; know all metals repress

mysteries of love.  All things feel, and all’s in your power!

Watch out: in walls without eyes are the glances of spies.

Any matter has a verb attached; do not use it impiously. 

Hiding deities often dwell inside

the vaguest beings, and like a newborn’s eye

still sealed, the pure soul flowers underneath stone peel.