Ash Wednesday
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Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for
there is nothing again
Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice
And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself
I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
-T-S Eliot
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
-Teresa of Avilla
Resurrection
Easter. The grave clothes of winter
are still here, but the sepulchre
is empty. A messenger
from the tomb tells us
how a stone has been rolled
from the mind, and a tree lightens
the darkness with its blossom.
There are travellers upon the road
who have heard music blown
from a bare bough, and a child
tells us how the accident
of last year, a machine stranded
beside the way for lack
of petrol, is crowned with flowers.
– R S Thomas
The world celebrates another of its important festivals and these poems were written by the poets to mark that occasion and to give expression to the faith they share.
This is the festival of Easter, which is one of the two most important and most elaborate festivals of the Christian religion. The other is Christmas, which is a much larger, grander occasion. Easter is a religious festival sacred to Christianity, marking the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is at the centre of the religion. It is a calendar festival which does not fall on the same date each year but is fixed according to the calendar of ancient feast days and other events.
It is celebrated 40 days after Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a period during which Christians forego material excesses or indulgencies in order to observe a more ascetic, holier lifestyle. Ash Wednesday commemorates the day when Jesus began 40 days of fasting and prayer in preparation for the important events of Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday, building up to Holy Thursday, followed by his crucifixion by Roman soldiers on Good Friday. He then rose on Easter Sunday – the day of the Resurrection that completed Jesus’s act of bringing eternal salvation to mankind according to Christian belief.
Since its rise in the early Middle Ages it has grown to be a cultural and traditional festival as well as a popular one. It was, at its beginnings, associated with pre-Christian spring celebrations, which fell in line with the spirit of rebirth, renewal and new life with which both the season of Spring and Christ’s mission on earth are linked according to the faith. It developed along with several cultural traditions and myths as well as secular festivities and customs which make it a popular festival.
The poem “Ash Wednesday” is one of six parts written in 1930 by T S Eliot, regarded as the most influential poet of the twentieth century. It is believed to be an expression of Eliot’s conversion to Christianity in 1927 and treats with the struggle of moving from unbelief to faith. In that vein it is fairly close to the poem “Journey of the Magi”, which deals with the transformation of the three wise kings from the East after their visit to Jesus at his birth.
The poem “God Has No Body” by Teresa of Avila is printed here after its appearance in a feature “Poetry for Easter” by Matt Erickson in April 2021. This rare and interesting sixteenth century poet was a Roman Catholic nun. Her name at birth on March 28, 1515, was Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda Y Ahumada. She joined the Carmelite Convent in Spain at 17 and became known as a mystic who experienced visions. She founded the convent of St Joseph of Avila as well as 16 others throughout Spain. St Teresa was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
R S Thomas, who wrote “Resurrection” was also featured by Erickson. Thomas was a well-known British poet of the early twentieth century. He was an Anglican pastor and a native of Wales.
