Category: Sacred Verse
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Centurion
You recant with the ease of swatting a fly. Under the harsh stares of your company, under the twin gazes of the golden eagle and Tiberius Caesar ‘s portrait bust, the whole affair becomes a dream. I never said it, and if I said it I never meant it. The gods are too busy feasting…
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Nicodemus
Light-averse and lampless he slipped like a cave fish through Jerusalem – its countless streets and byways – seeking a rabbi he dared not call rabbi. Every sound, a threat. Every shadow, an informer. To be caught was death. No doubt he arrived breathless, trembling, but full of hope: now he would hear the secret…
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Divine Love
Strange champagne. Poured out long ago – so long ago. Not gone flat, though. Froth on the tongue: each sip goes straight to the brain and makes it sing. Strange party, too. We all stood around, waiting for the guest of honor, until the host whispered in each person’s ear: Haven’t you guessed yet that…
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Tempter
The serpent speaks still by turns soft and small by turns shrill and loud We would not be so quick to heed it except for two things | first that it tells us precisely what we want to hear | second that it never fails to speak to us in our own voice Cover Photo:…
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Joseph
I will teach him my trade Under my hawk’s eye he will learn to dress and chisel stone Dust will grit between his teeth | gray his hair before its time Like his father he will work gravestones Greek and Jewish dead all alike Sometimes as we sweat we will speak of the Last Day…
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Judas Iscariot
found his thirty pieces of silver so tarnished he could not wipe them clean. It was as if they had been dipped in a dish of salt- sweat and vinegar and curdled blood. He worked with a cloth and got nowhere. He worked with his fingernails and they burned. He worked so hard scrubbing that…
Thomas R. Keith Poetry 