the other night i pulled mary oliver's new and selected poems off my shelf. i was looking for a poem to send to a friend, and as i found the one i was looking for, this one caught my eye as well
Maybe
Sweet Jesus, talking
his melancholy madness,
stood up in the boat
and the sea lay down,
silky and sorry,
So everybody was saved
that night.
But you know how it is
when something
different crosses
the threshold — the uncles
mutter together,
the women walk away,
the young brother begins
to sharpen his knife.
Nobody knows what the soul is.
It comes and goes
like the wind over the water —
sometimes, for days,
you don’t think of it.
Maybe, after the sermon,
after the multitude was fed,
one or two of them felt
the soul slip forth
like a tremor of pure sunlight
before exhaustion,
that wants to swallow everything,
gripped their bones and left them
miserable and sleepy,
as they are now, forgetting
how the wind tore at the sails
before he rose and talked to it —
tender and luminous and demanding
as he always was —
a thousand times more frightening
than the killer sea.
i savored the tremor of pure sunlight; i felt the wind tearing at the sails and retreating to a sleepy silence; i see Jesus, fearful and tender and luminous, demanding that the sea and the people listen to him. i wanted to find the scripture that mary took her inspiration from, Matthew 8:23-27, reads
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
last night, i picked up my copy of god speaks through wombs by drew jackson. the third poem i read tonight is titled
The Raging Sea
and the accompanying scripture reference is Luke 8:22-25
One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
next to this passage in my Bible, i had penned Psalm 65:7-8, so of course i turned there, and, because i had underlined 5-8, that is what i read
By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
so here, in one of the psalms of david, we have God stilling the roaring of the sea, the roaring of the waves, and the tumult of people.
then i read drew's poem:
The Raging Sea
Growing up, I heard tales of sea monsters.
Some called them whales,
some said Leviathan --
giants,
the size of empires.
Untamable, chaotic, overwhelming.
No one could tell what their next move would be.
We never stood a chance,
like minnows,
in the ocean of great powers.
The only thing more potent
than the monsters who cause storms
is the one who can calm them. But I guess
he's sleeping, because the beasts rage on.
the ending of drew's poem is the ending of david's psalm create a dissonance. joy and rage. the ending of mary's poem and the ending of david's psalm also create a dissonance. awesome and frightening.
there is one more telling of the story in scripture. and it is of interest to note that, because of roman imperial occumpation and the temple's destruction and desecration, the atmosphere of the disciples' world was full of fear, grief, lamentation, and dread. the storm that overtakes their boat and the boats around them, is one more monster that threatens to overtake them, to take their very lives. and Jesus has laid down on a cushion and fallen asleep. we find a third telling in Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
the disciples would have heard david's psalm read in synagogue. they would have known that it is God who stills the raging wind, the raging sea, the tumult within the people. and here was Jesus in the midst of the storm, demanding that the sea lay down, fearlessly commanding the wind and waves to still. who is this man? the wind and waves obey him. what sort of a man is he? is he even a man? . . . the relief from fear, the absence of wind, the almost eerie calm, leaves them unnerved.
our lives sometimes fill with fear, grief, lamentation, and dread. we are threatened by storms that break over us. there are monsters that rage on for days, weeks, months, years, and even lifetimes. in our distress, tossed in the untamable sea, though we cry out in unbelief, he may yet calm the storm, he may yet bring joy, he may yet remain with us, girded with might, awesome and terrible, beautiful and more powerful than any other force we have ever known. unsettling even as he brings peace.
.. ... ..... .. . . .. ... .. . .. .. .... . .. . ... . . . .. .. . . . . ... . ... .. . .. .
if you want to hear me read aloud and talk about this, you can listen at my vimeo site