Haiku of the Passion (Mark)

 

Haiku of the Passion (Mark)

They plotted his death

Wait ‘til the festival’s passed,

avoid a riot.

Bethany’s perfume

poured out over Jesus’ head.

Anticipation.

Why was it not sold

for the poor? She has done this

ahead of my death.

The passover meal.

This is my body, broken;

my blood spilt for you.

Even must I die

I will not desert you, Lord.

Is that so, Peter?

In Gethsemane,

three disciples, asked to watch.

Weariness prevails.

Can’t you stay awake?

Your spirits may be willing,

but your flesh is weak.

He is arrested,

and led away to be tried.

They all run from him.

The verdict: guilty

of blasphemy. The sentence:

inevitable.

His fate is confirmed

by Pilate, he is beaten,

mocked, led out to die.

Lifted on a cross.

The mob mentality rules;

the mocking persists.

The sign above reads,

This is the king of the Jews.

He cries out, and dies.

© Ken Rookes 2024

The Last Supper by Rainer Maria Rilke

On seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", Milan 1904.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,
leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.

To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.

 

El Greco the last supper

I love the earthy, grounded nature of El Greco's works.