Poetry
Poetry
Maundy Thursday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 04/02/2015 - 21:17How do you wash feet online?
I’m not talking about posting about it
on Facebook
like
I’m at Maundy Thursday Service
at Grace and St. Peter’s.
And I’m obviously not talking
about something physical
with water.
No, I’m thinking about
how we subvert power structures,
how leaders become servants
and how we allow others
to serve us
in our brokenness.
It isn’t easy
to step outside of the power structure
no matter what your role
particularly online
where snark reigns supreme
but it seems
desperately needed.
#HolyWeek2015
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 03/29/2015 - 14:23The “Waiting for Jesus” Facebook group
went wild
when the liberal cable news host
had a special commentary
on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
#Hosanna trended on twitter.
Although, the conservative
talk radio hosts
reported much smaller crowds
For the next couple days
the news cycle was dominated
by questions about the movement,
the leaders,
the goals.
The mood remained jubilant.
Until He disrupted
financial transactions
in the temple
and the analysts
on the financial news networks
turned critical.
The #crucify was all the tweets
and followers started denying
their ties to the movement.
Spring Snow Still Glistens
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 03/28/2015 - 21:23On the second Saturday morning of spring
we stood ‘round the transfer station
transferring our trash
and talking about the weather.
“You know,” he said
“this isn’t real snow.”
And I told him ‘bout
how when I was young
we called it
poor man’s fertilizer.
He chuckled and said
“Seems we’re all a little poorer
these days.”
But the flurries lasted all day
and as I drove my daughter
to a sleepover
the headlights
illumined the flakes.
Spring snow still glistens.
Bushwhacking
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/27/2015 - 22:52I thought
if I head off the trail
about here
I can cut through the woods
and get home
more quickly.
Through the brambles
down the embankment
across a stream.
Yet the short cut didn’t come out
where I expected
so I wandered
deeper into the woods.
Syntax
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/26/2015 - 21:02I explore the manuscripts
of Emily Dickinson
and think about dashes.
What do they mean?
How important are they?
What about the line breaks?
The smudges on the page?
Where does the poetry end
and negative space begin?
I grew up, in part,
on e.e. cummings,
with his choices
of capitalization and punctuation.
I pause to think about the line break
the blank line
and I think about the syntax
of a mathematician
or computer programmer.
If you miss the semi-colon
the reader may be confused,
but figure it out.
The compiler,
on the other hand
throws an error
but pays no attention
to the spaces or line breaks.
(Depending, of course,
on the language used)
