Four Words with Written Purpose Rose
[A reflection on the Gospel of John 19:19-22]
Four words with written purpose rose
and spilled their meaning
into lifting eyes.
No apologies in those taut lines,
no submission to cultured wisdoms
and acceptable sensibilities
in those carved words
come declarative from gubernatorial decree.
Four words,
clawed and hewn,
and there inlaid as lettered parquet,
titulus in blood upon some oaken plank
that you may read in panicked flight -
but not at leisure.
In flight from substance and substantial reason,
being reason enough for flight for some
who flee to the uttermost,
only to find one already there
ahead and waiting.
And those,
confronting themselves,
yet not wishing to read the small print,
find those words, alive and ancient,
rise and spill
into their frightened eyes.
That oaken folio
by a fourth spike affixed
rose up affirmative
that all the world may read:
Iesus•Nazarenus•Rex•Iudaeorum.
Author notes
An Easter meditation upon the plaque afixed upon a wooden cross; Gospel of John chapter 19, verses 19 through 22.
[see also Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38]
Comments
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I had to read this a few times to fully understand this piece - that's a good thing
you get to experience its brilliance again and again rather than read and forget.
When you get to the final line and realize what those "four words" are, you become aware of just how deep and powerful the piece is.
Definately going to be a favourite of mine
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Until I found the meaning of those last four words I thought you had just written a nice piece of poetry. It goes much deeper than that when "Hail the Nazarene King" is known to be the last line. Now it's a profound piece of writing, or I have got it wrong again.
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