Heres is an unexpected extra fifteenth sonnet for Easter Morning, which I dedicate to my friend Mary who asked me to write it, and to the memory of her husband Gavin. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
I am grateful to Oliver Neale for permission to use the image above. as always you can hear the sonnet by clicking on the ‘play’ button or on the title.
XV Easter Dawn
He blesses every love which weeps and grieves
And now he blesses hers who stood and wept
And would not be consoled, or leave her love’s
Last touching place, but watched as low light crept
Up from the east. A sound behind her stirs
A scatter of bright birdsong through the air.
She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,
Or recognise the Gardener standing there.
She hardly hears his gentle question ‘Why,
Why are you weeping?’, or sees the play of light
That brightens as she chokes out her reply
‘They took my love away, my day is night’
And then she hears her name, she hears Love say
The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.
Malcolm Guite 
awesome. happy Easter
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I am just discovering your wonderful sonnets!
Thank you. I preached on Mary Mag this mo”rning, using some of my (much inferior) poems from #easterlive last year. She’s very special for me… this is just beautiful
Thanks. Glad you found and enjoyed this one. She is a very compelling figure and to look atbthe gospel through her eyes is always to rediscover the heart of it.
Wonderful poem. Happy Easter.
Thanks Carl. Happy Easter to you too!
Beautiful. Happy Easter.
Beautiful words. If I could be anyone in Jesus’ day, I would be her because she knew forgiveness and love to a depth that many of us have not discovered.
Also, your words remind me of a favourite section of Tennyson’s In Memoriam:
Then one deep love doth supersede
All other, when her ardent gaze
Roves from the living brother’s face,
And rests upon the Life indeed.
Thanks Karen. I agree entirely about Mary Magdalene. I’m glad to have reminded you of In Memoriam which is one of my favourite poems. I love Tennyson and think he is at present neglected and under-rated as a poet. But for me his a great exemplar and inspiration.
Thank you, Malcolm, for all your sonnets during Lent, Holy Week and now glorious Easter. I used a couple of the Stations in my Good Friday homily. (Yes, we retired/retread clerics are “on” occasionally!).
Now, I’ll pester you some more: when are going to be able to journey to this side of the Pond again, especially to the beautiful Northwest, like Oregon?
Fr. Phillip Ayers, Portland, OR, US
Humanity exposed so beautifully described and to include for us all the joy of Easter. Thank you.
Thanks
Wow. I tried to read this aloud and couldn’t get through it without choking on tears again and again. So lovely, so true. Such a reminder of the Gardener’s love for us.
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