Each week we carefully curate a collection of poems that resonate with the lectionary readings for that week (Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary).
*** Revised Common Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading: Mark 1:21-28
CLASSIC POEM:
He Commandeth the Unclean Spirits
Alfred Norris
DEAR Lord, I housed a noisome, lying fiend
Within the secret chambers of my soul;
Entrance he got through one small window screen’d,
And then usurp’d the whole.
All noble thoughts he dimm’d with evil sneer,
All aspirations laugh’d to bitter scorn;
On Love and Truth he cast his blighting leer,
And Hope died ere ’twas born.
E’en from a child I bore this noisome fiend
In vain revolt against his passionate might,
Till all my strength was spent. Like one I seem’d
Who long had lost his sight.
Dear Lord, I lay beneath Thy cross! At first
‘Twas darkly empty; as I groped in fear
I heard the gates of heaven open burst:
I cried, “O Saviour, hear!”
And not in vain, for on my ear there fell
Thy strong “I will!” and lo! the fiend went forth–
He tore me as he went– a-down to hell,
Raving, and bitter wroth.
Came swinging from the pit a hoarse, fell noise,
As to their chain-lengths wallowing fiends up-swung.
High heaven lay calmly on its equipoise,
Sweetly the angels sung.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
The Exorcism
Joyce Sutphen
SNIPPET:
It was homemade and primitive,
like pulling a tooth with a string
and a slamming door, like taking out
an appendix by kerosene light
where dogs wandered in and out
the dirt-floored room.
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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