The Conversion of Saul (revised)
[Paul said:] When the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.
Acts 22:20
You will remember that I watched you dying.
You were buried to the waist. Your hands
were not flung up, which puzzled me, though maybe
they were broken. You wore a crown of blood
as if of ribbons. The coats around me seemed to thicken.
Do you know they say you had the face
of an angel? I admit I never saw that, but there was
something, in that last moment, when you tilted up
your chin -- not wings,
but a kind of brightness, a door
opening.
So when I fell
from the horse -- my heart hinged,
I shattered, a hoof nicked my ear --
a voice, a radiant pain
and blood ribboning. I cried who
and thought I would hear: Stephen.
A revision of last week's version. Which I'll link to when my blog gets going again. (Soon!) This poem is growing on me. I took a chance and included both this and "Yours is the Day" in my OAC application Monday, even though they are too new for me to read well.
I wanted to add that I was thinking of Carravagio's Conversion of Saul when I wrote this ... I think of Carravagio a lot when trying to strike the right tone for these poems. But "Saul," which I've actually seen, is one of only three pieces of art ever to move me to tears.
1 Comments
” I cried who and thought I would hear: Stephen.”
As ever, dear online friend, it is in the final line that you capture me. This is a wonderful last line because it completes the work yet creates a new stream of thought. My heart joins Saul in being suprised that it was the Lord who was speaking because one can plumb the depths and implications of that truth for some time.
thrive!, O