(disclaimer: this is a slam poem, so the meter is most present when read aloud, and more specifically, with a meter that i have in my head…if that makes any sense. i have really been moved by john’s account of how yeshua responds to the woman caught in adultery (john 8) and the reality, the brutality, the honest grit of it all – how it should play out like a movie scene, but how we have a tendency to make it so lifeless and absurdly sterile…so nonetheless…)
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REMEDY FOLLOWS GRAVITY DOWN
I.
remedy
follows
gravity
down
this is why GOD is found making tabernacle in dirt for his renown;
why he’s found kneeling at the head of her who was found out:
that whore who can’t utter a sound lest her shame cover her mouth
(which no doubt profanes the name of him she sees now
kneeling, leaning down
and he grabs her hand and
wraps his fingers around hers
and she feels his pulse and
in an instant is lost
in his eyes of grace) but then she pulls back from his embrace
and begins
to drown
in the sea of those around her
of those who found her and bound her
and dragged her through the town
leaving her stranded, naked, exposed and
falling
down
to the earth below
with tears in her eyes and nothing to show
for the years of trusting lies and guys and
becoming a disguise of a woman with a past once before
who didn’t always dream of finding her clothes on the floor
and her lips on men she knew no more than those idols
and recitals she looked to with high hopes as she danced for all
the people to see.
and do they come in love?
no.
but with stones behind spineless backs
and permanent words from hearts that lack
love,
they keep on coming back to attack
and keep her on her bare back
(just because they like the view)
do you come in love? do you?
II.
and so he gathers a halug from the wind
covers her shoulders, her chest and looks into her eyes for the first time again.
helping her on unsteady feet,
an unready heart beating and beaten
she’s lost all meaning with nothing to keep
her attention on the words falling from his lips,
he whispers, “woman. rise up! and look not on with eyes of defeat,
for i have been watching and waiting
for your cry, your plea.
behold, where you now stand is the
new
mercy
seat,
this is it, this is it, this is the year of
jubilee!
III.
in this next divine second
earth was met by heaven
as he knelt over the ground
and once again the finger of GOD began
to trace the sound of the law as it is found
in the freedom of heaven which is not bound
as a religious noun
or even a place that can be traveled around or
a thing that one might could pin
down
IV.
NO! it was right then and there:
writing on the hard earth
as it is right here and now:
being written on hearts of worth
always giving birth to the righting of wrongs
and the writing of songs
about the story of the one who came riding along
on the back of an ass which didn’t belong
in the empire of hate or the temple of late
in whose shadow and gate he now
patiently waits for the trap of
those who proclaim
to know the GOD who comes in love-
do we come in love?
do we?
V.
at last an old voice breaks free
declaring for all to see,
“hear, o people, of this woman’s infidelity!
she was caught in the very act of adultery!”
and to him, the one with her, they now take aim.
“in the law, moses commands to stone such sl- women.
now, what do you say?”
VI.
the time that passed you can’t comprehend.
you can’t fathom the beginning of the end.
“let any one of you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone
at
her.”
and the world
began to blur
and the words
began to hurt, and cut a deep wound;
the kind that bleeds life into an empty tomb
as it makes room
for the lungs to expand
and the hand to demand
the release of the stone and
the repentance of every man.
VII.
gravitation: the means by which
objects with mass and weight are attracted to one an other.
like enemies becoming our sister, our brother.
like her, like us, loving each other.
i wonder, i shutter to think
if we would love with a furious love
and put down our sword, put down our shield
would we become a gravitational field
with a body so great and a weight so real
that all would be drawn to drink the wine
and in his good time, eat the meal?
so we all may be poured out
that others be filled!
may we all be broken
that others be healed!
may we join her and leave behind
our daily ways of deathly wages
to follow after the king of kings of kings,
the remedy of the ages.
and may we follow him down
to those on the ground
outside the walls and outside the towns
to get in their skin, to kneel where they kneel
this is compassion, to feel what they feel.
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