CROSSROADS

Hanging between heaven and earth

Left alone in the abyss of darkness

I bow my head in absolute humility

Nothing to hold on to in my emptiness

Save the boundless love that binds me

To my beloved who brought me here.

My troubled heart profusely bleeds

For affections I have to surrender

My weak spirit is utterly crushed

For friendships I have to break

My tongue is frozen and numbed

From lamentations I have to wail.

 Don’t comfort me with words of wisdom

To find meaning in my folly

I do not need you to sing me dirges

As soothing balm for  my pain

Nor a cloth to cover my nakedness

To spare me from excruciating shame.

Until I have still something to give

My offering is never complete

When everything  is emptied out

And my last precious drops of blood

Fall into the sacred fire of divine love

Then my life will at last begin….

Commentary:

The photograph is the famous The Cross of St. John of the Cross by the surrealist Salvador Dali.  The inspiration was taken from an original drawing of St. John of the Cross.

The poem is a re-telling of the seven last words of Jesus on the Cross.  When I composed it, I had to go back to the many crossroads in my life as well as I remembered the untold pains of my friends which are only to known to God.

When I posted this poetograph in Facebook, many identified their pains with the pain of Jesus. The words in the poem become our own when we are hanging on our own personal crosses....