I really struggled with this challenge but finally came up with this:
The Light of the World
I joined the murmuring crowds gathered
To gawp at the nakedness of steel
That the lightning and fire had left.
The bare bones of the King of Kings.
The irony of the giant white Jesus,
Supplicant hands lifted to the Father,
Struck and killed by a bolt from heaven
Dripped on our heads like molten metal.
We searched for meaning in the scorched steel,
Tried to riddle the message of mangled armature,
Garlanded the event with significance.
Surely, we said to ourselves, this is a sign.
Meteorology or mystery? No matter.
For a moment, in our minds, plastic and steel
Had been transformed, had become
The Light of the World.
Well, out of the struggle has been born a winner! Excellent.
ReplyDeleteKat
P.S. Love your new template choice.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kat, for both comments.
ReplyDeleteVery clever to find the words to go with the rather strange images.
ReplyDeleteKitsch becomes poetry.
I know what I prefer and it isn't a foam statue.
Well done! I have really struggled with the whole business. I know what I feel, but a sign from God? Who knows - especially since it feels like the church involved isn't even listening.
ReplyDeleteA well worked poem there Argent, a proper job instead oftaking the easy cheap laugh like wot I did.You've put some work and thought into it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked these lines...
Tried to riddle the message of mangled armature,
Garlended the event with significance.
Surely, we said to ourselves, this is a sign.
Really interesting Argent, and as TFE says, you obviously thought. He also picked the lines I really liked, but especially, for me, "riddle the message".
ReplyDeleteI also liked the riddle posed in the final stanza, and how one is to interpret "Light of the World".
Really overt set of images this week, going to be interesting to see what people come up with...
Ah, Argent. This poem was a good job. You left me with a deep sense of Ahhh.
ReplyDeleteThank you for struggling long enough to write it.
Thanks, everyone, for commenting.
ReplyDelete@Friko - Kitsch is just about the right word. What on earth were they thinking when they had that statue put up?
@Bug - I think it would take more than a lightning bolt to wake the church/world up, sadly.
@TFE - I was going to go for the laugh option with this, but could not for the life of me come up with anything witty that others had not done lods better. I quite like those lines too.
@Titus - For once, I actually did make several attempts at this and threw them away. I usually blurt out the first thing that comes to me and go with that, but this time I could not get any kind of flow. This is the best of a bad bunch.
@EO - Thanks, I've just re-read it this morning and it doesn't seem as awful as it did last night when I posted it.
the message of mangled armature is a great line to say aloud, I think I'll be working that into my canteen conversations today..
ReplyDeletegood work!
Like the play on the words ' light of the world.'
ReplyDelete@Niamh - What kind of canteen do you go to that would engender such interesting coversations? Our works one (when we had it, had some kind of IQ dampening field installed to judge by the level of intellectual activity going on there of a lunchtime).
ReplyDelete@Weaver - Thanks. That actually came to me about half-way through the wiriting and having there made me re-think the whole piece.
Oooh, deep. Very deep. Meteorology or mystery? No matter.!! Out of the struggle comes forth poetry.
ReplyDelete@Peter - Thank you kindly!
ReplyDelete