Golgotha

[David W. Parsley]

Golgotha

from NOTES FROM THE COMMON ERA

.

Spikes protrude like black horns

from the wounded palms. He is

naked and dumb, strung on the slivered beams

above earth he may not touch.

.

Ankle deep the faces ripple to his horizon.

Essence of sweat and vinegar floats above

boisterous wagers and gossip spreading quiet

as shadow touches the sea of them.

.

Darkness climbs the milk-white body of God

with clouds ascendant the face of heaven,

breath rising pitch by pitch into cries, wind

pushed like an army of lightning back to the city.

.

It blows through gates and courtyards spilling

shewbread beneath the pitch and snap

of curtains surrounding the Holy Place,

tearing like a withered scroll the hallowed veil.

.

And the eyes of saints around Jerusalem

come open in their graves.

 

 

 

previously unpublished
© 2013 David W. Parsley
Parsley Poetry Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Benjamin]

A vivid and appropriate piece for the season. A crucial point in history,when spiritual reasoning evolved to provide hope and an alternative focus to cruel and physical regimes.

[badger11]

He is

naked and dumb

I thought that captured the humility, the sacrifice, vulnerability of the moment.

Darkness climbs the milk-white body of God

 

Apparently the early representations pictured an 'Apollo' figure:

 

 

the Christians represented their God as a young slightly feminine man until the emergence of Saint Mary and with the adoption of christianity by the emperor Constantine how Christian artists drew on images of ancient gods for inspiration for a more masculine Jesus

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Ages:_An_Age_of_Light

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK1KTqjbAjE

 

The point is made about twenty minutes in to the film.

 

badge

[Larsen M. Callirhoe]

Jolly good show David. Hey badge love the movie.

 

victor

[Tinker]

Wow! Perfect meditation for Holy Week coming up. I am transported to the place, time and event when I read your poem. This is a powerful piece and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

 

This is stunning work.

 

~~Tink

[dcmarti1]

i really like that 4th (next to last) stanza. Nice.

[tonyv]

Chilling yet uplifting, dignified, and sober. A stark yet hopeful reminder of the reason for the season.

 

Tony

 

PS - I love what you're doing with your Member Archive page and how you've incorporated a link to it at the bottom of the poem's page. (You could even use it in your signature.)

[dr_con]

Took me back to being a child and watching on our black and white TV- Barrabas,

what rang through my experiences of these movies was the humanity or inhumanity. The echo hods true in this marvelous piece.

 

Many Thanks,

Juris

[David W. Parsley]

A vivid and appropriate piece for the season. A crucial point in history,when spiritual reasoning evolved to provide hope and an alternative focus to cruel and physical regimes.

Ben, it is so gratifying to see how quickly you seem to grasp my overall aims in a poem, even a large-scale effort like "Notes." This is only the first installment in the series, but you gravitate immediately to the quest for historical relevance to the present human condition. Each poem is intended to stand alone, too, so I appreciate your characterization of 'vivid.'

 

Thank you,

- Dave

[David W. Parsley]

Badger, thanks for the insight on the poem and for the link to some recent thinking on the "Dark Ages". Not all of the reasoning stands up to scrutiny perhaps, but the perspective on art progression is fascinating!

 

- Dave

[David W. Parsley]

Jolly good show David. Hey badge love the movie.

 

victor

Thanks, Victor, I'm glad the poem (and the documentary!) worked for you.

- Dave

[David W. Parsley]

Wow! Perfect meditation for Holy Week coming up. I am transported to the place, time and event when I read your poem. This is a powerful piece and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

 

This is stunning work.

 

~~Tink

Tinker, your response does my heart glad. Of course the poem takes its place in the overall context of the 'Notes', but more than anything it is intended to occasion a revisit to the primal Passion that initiated one of the great awakenings in our history. It is left to the individual to measure the relevance of such awakening in his/her own cultural context and soul. All the responses here reward my hopes to some degree, but yours is one of the closest to my own resonance.

 

May the remaining poems in the sequence not disappoint too much. Few approach the mythic wallop (in this case a myth that is true, according to C.S. Lewis) attempted by this one.

 

Thank You,

- Dave

[Larsen M. Callirhoe]

You know Dave you have some very interesting points of view here in your poem and i like it a lot. i was watching Freddy Prince a preacher who preaches on TV and on his show this morning and he stated something a long the lines that the saints came out of their graves once jesus christ passed away and he also said something very interesting after that. he saidyou can't find the saints bodies because Jesus took them to heaven literally. he does have an interesting point of view here. then he quoted the verse in the bible that the veil was rent in the main temple.

 

Also i watched a show on the history channel that talked about the book the war with the jews that happen and ended in 70 AD. the jews scattered after this and the temple in jerusalem was destroyed. this made me realie the book of the war with the jews is a true rendition of what happened and ended in 70 AD to the jewish race. they then scattered to europe and other parts of the world. i have an ebook of this account in my files. very interesting stuff. the guy who wrote this i think his name was joseph of antiquity.

 

victor

[David W. Parsley]

i really like that 4th (next to last) stanza. Nice.

dc, I really like that insightful comment. It is my intention to have something for the specialist(s) in each of the 29 parts of this poem. For "Golgotha", the principle 'something' is theological, blending known symbol and doctrine with historical narrative to deepen the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual impact of the experience. The 4th stanza is peculiarly pregnant with such symbol and metonomy (i.e. the veil of His flesh, the scroll representing the Law and the Prophets, the newly redefined access to God, etc.).

 

Thanks for the response!

- Dave