Easter Light

Easter Light

Royal Rhodes

The light, a "bright abyss" a bookman said,
Has burned away the winter's cleansing hold.
Each rhyme I thought gave order left me dead.
Every longing left me numb and cold.
A dumb unword, a Godspeak, angeltongue
Spoke divine unmeaning in my brain --
Thoughts so terrible in horror hung,
Exposed as on a cross, I now refrain
Repeating. Fractured bones and bowels fail,
Flawed, and fail in me -- sweet misery --
Either this was vision or a nail
A mind in perishing at last can see.
Shadows fled as life begins to start:
The stone that rolled away had been my heart.

---

Royal Rhodes
Poet & Professor

Royal taught courses in religion and death & dying for about 40 years. His poems have appeared in over 45 literary journals, including: The Lyric, Better Than Starbucks, Abandoned Mine, and The Montreal Review.  Collaborations of art and his poetry have been published by The Catbird [on the Yadkin] Press in North Carolina.

Photography by Mazarine Eggerickx