POETRY
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Issue Date:  April 18, 2008

POETRY

Broken Vessels

With each snap of the whip
With each piercing of the thorn
With each strike of the hammer
With each gasp of breath
Shattering sounds begin to echo
around the earth.

As the thunder claps
As the sky darkens
As the curtain tears
As the final breath releases
Broken pieces of shattered vessels
cover the world

The Son rises from the darken tomb,
the splintered shards melt together
As a multicolored mosaic appears.
A barrier of sin blocking humanity
from God is destroyed.

The Father looks upon His creation
through a stained glass window
fashioned by His Son.

Light manifests throughout
earth and Heaven
Humankind once again
reflects the Creator.

-- Susan Handle Terbay
   Dayton, Ohio

Resurrection

Lent’s deep purple
seeps into the ground
and dyes the crocus,
first to poke up
from entombment.
The lilacs purple later --
blooming, aromatic liturgy
of Passiontide and promise --
all fulfilled.
In an Easter crescendo
garish tulips
and the gleaming daffodils
just rise and rise
and rise and rise and rise.

-- Sr. Pat Schnapp, RSM
   Adrian, Mich.

Paschal Mystery

after
the long silence
the grayness of earth
unfolds her alleluia
then
rising from her tomb of self
she breathes, steps forth
and dances

-- Sr. Lou Ella Hickman, IWBS
   Corpus Christi, Texas

Note to poets: Short lines preferred. Poetry is published in a newspaper column only 35 characters wide, counting punctuation and spaces. Submit poems to Poetry, NCR, PO Box 411009, Kansas City MO 64141-1009, or e-mail at poetry@ncronline.org.

National Catholic Reporter, April 18, 2008

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