Poem: Reflections of Jesus’ Body from the Tomb

April is National Poetry month and last Friday was Good Friday.  Here is my first attempt at poetry.  It is about neither education nor technology, but it was deeply felt.

Author note: As I lay in Jesus’ tomb portraying his body a station of the cross on Good Friday. I realized I had a unique perspective of Jesus’ burial. My eyes were closed, so I had to see with my other senses. I was not playing Jesus, only his body. My reflections on the experience inspired this poem.

I had been abused and broken only hours before.

I was laid in a borrowed tomb.

But Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have heard the whispers

of two female voices draw closer to the cave door.

I would not have heard their gasps as they saw me,

caked with blood, lying on cold, hard stone.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have heard the sound of water being squeezed out of a cloth.

I would not have felt a cold cloth begin to clean my face,

wiping, washing, smoothing with a gentle touch.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt cool and clean as water evaporated from my chest.

I would not have felt warm, sorrowful tears on the back of my hand.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt feminine hands lift my hand to dry between my fingers.

I would not have smelt pungent aromas of myrrh.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt the cold oil as they anointed my legs.

I would not have felt the prickle of spices spread into the oil soaking my skin.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt the soft edges of the cloth

Tickle my skin as they were dragged across my ankles.

I would not have felt slender hands tie linen rags around my hands.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt delicate hands lift my feet.

I would not have felt the silky strips begin to firmly wrap them together.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt airy cloth brush my eyelashes.

I would not have felt my breath gently billow the cloth under my nose.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have felt the hands cease touching me.

I would not have heard whispered sobs that

They would never again see the face they had just covered.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have heard the whisper of their clothing as they silently left my tomb.

I would not have heard the silence.

Because Jesus was no longer there.

I would not have heard the earthquake.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Because I was not longer there.

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Fire!

We had some excitement here at home this weekend. As I was pulling up the driveway, I saw smoke billowing beside the house. I pulled up to find the fence row on fire. I ran into the house and yelled “The field is on fire!” My father-in-law and I dragged out hoses and started putting out the fire. We started getting it under control, but the fire on the other side of the fence rapidly spread into our neighbor’s field. My mother-in-law called 911.

We put out the fire on our side of the fence while we waited on the fire department. My wife and another neighbor arrived to help. 3 Fire department pickups with hoses and a pumper truck eventually showed up to put out the grass fire on the other side of our fence. My kids even did their part by carrying little buckets of water to help put out some railroad ties that had caught on fire.

It was all caused by a bird landing on top of an electrical transformer and some sparks probably started the fire. The power surge also knocked out our phone and cable, so we are without mass communication with the outside world. I miss not being connected, but the quiet is kind of nice. I also get more done.

We were very lucky that only some fencing materials and railroad ties were damaged in the fire. It is probably an experience we will remember for a long time.

What does this have to do with learning in School 2.0? First of all, it is the experiences that are most personal, out-of-the-ordinary, and most involving that we remember most. For learning to “stick” it needs to be personal, out-of-the-ordinary, and involve the student.

Second, we live in such an information flooded society, with so much stimulus, sometimes we need to turn off some of the input, so we can focus on getting some things done. Multi-tasking is not always a good thing.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

no comments yet.