Carol Christoffers introduces us to the newness of the
new year and acknowledges the brokenness of our world. Bishop Ahrens picks up on that
brokenness and we are encouraged to read slowly her poetic prayer of painful
abuse and the transition to working with the Spirit of God. Events of the last weeks of 2014 caused
me to scream, to relate to Evard Munch’s art of The Scream and the intertwining
of his lines and mine.
Go read in peace and understanding
Barbara A. Campbell, Connecticut’s Diocesan Poet
2015
by Carol
Christoffers
St. Andrew’s,
Meriden, CT
2014
has passed away. 2015 is here to stay
Full
of promise - challenges for a new day
Hope
for peace to banish all strife
Good
health and prosperity - a better life
As
darkness retreats there is increased light
Wise
choices will make our future bright
2015
- blank pages unfurled
A
chance to fix our broken world
******************
A poetic prayer from the 16th Day of activitism
in 2014 of the national Episcopal Church Women
by The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens
Bishop Suffragan
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut
A crack,
a slap, a painful plea
A cry
for help
Heard,
unheard, denied
Cultural
Institutional
Interpersonal
And...Really...personal
Denied.
Don’t
tell
Embarrass
Blame
Shame
A
bruise, a cut, an unhealed ache.
This is
not the mark of Cain.
A
prayer?
Jesus,
in the temple, outraged.
Injustice,
imbalance, unsettled.
A hope?
Move,
toward me.
Seek,
heal, calm
Come to
me.
Help me
Heal me
A good
day.
Strength
Move,
toward You
On a
good day
A good
day
My
prayer today...
Voice
Strength
Advocacy
Advocate
Spirit
within me
Spirit
of God
Be my
voice
No
Enough
Stop
Never
Heal
Voice
Advocate
Yes
Not
alone
God with
me
Me with
you
Together,
with God
No
Moves to
Yes
You are
my beloved
Today
Forever
Always
****************
Between
1893 and 1910, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created four versions of The
Scream. The paintings have a
history of being stolen in Oslo, one from the Oslo National Gallery February
12, 1994 and recovered May 7, 1994, one
from the Munch Museum also in Oslo on August 22, 2004 and recovered
August 31, 2006. The pastel
version is in a frame on which Munch painted a poem which he revised from a
poem in his diary, translated as follows:
I was walking along the road with two
friends
The
Sun was setting – the Sky turned blood-red.
And
I felt a wave of Sadness – I paused
tired to Death – Above the blue-black
Fjord and
City Blood and Flaming tongues hovered
My
friends walked on – I stayed
behind –
quaking with Angst – I
felt
the great Scream in Nature
Ekphrastic
poetry is an active conversation between art and poetry. Below is a conversation between two
poems, both screaming, and written 100 years apart.
I felt the
great Scream in Nature
by
Barbara A. Campbell
Connecticut’s
Diocesan Poet
December
2014
“I felt the
great Scream in Nature”
Thus wrote
Edvard Munch
on the frame
of the pastel that sold for 120 million.
“I felt a wave
of sadness”
as we
remembered
the Second Anniversary of Newtown
and saw 140 people killed in
Pakistan,
130 of them
children.
“I paused
tired to Death”
as an
unarmed Black man lay
on the street
shot by a white police officer.
No trial the
Grand Jury said.
Hearing over
and over
“I can’t breath”
as a black man dies of a white
police officer’s
chokehold.
No trial the
Grand Jury said.
“My friends
walked on – I stayed
behind”
and followed
the protests
in Ferguson
in New York
in Berkeley
“quaking with
Angst”.
Then comes
the news
of prisoner
releases and exchanges
reopening
diplomacy with Cuba
moments for
joy and hope
and
immediately,
this time in
words,
the Black
man’s hope is shot down.
Comes again
the Scream
“The Sun was
setting - the sky turned
blood-red”
with the blood of children
“Above the
blue-black
Fjord”
inked with hopeless deviseness of
racism
Comes again
the Scream.
