Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell, by Denise Levertov

Holy Saturday

Down through the tomb's inward arch
He has shouldered out into Limbo
to gather them, dazed, from dreamless slumber:
the merciful dead, the prophets,
the innocents just His own age and those
unnumbered others waiting here
unaware, in an endless void he He is ending
now, stooping to tug at their hands,
to pull them from their sarcophagi,
dazzled, almost unwilling. Didmas,
neighbour in death, Golgotha dust
still streaked on the dried sweat of his body
no one had washed and anointed , is here,
for sequence is not known in Limbo;
the promise, given from cross to cross
at noon, arches beyond sunset and dawn.
All these He will swiftly lead
to the Paradise road: they are safe.
That done, there must take place that struggle
...
to break
through earth and stone of the faithless world
back to the cold sepulchre
...
His mortal flesh was lit from within, now,
and aching for home. He must return,
first, in Divine patience, and know
hunger again, and give
to humble friends the joy
of giving Him food - fish and a honeycomb.

It's a wonderful poem about Christ going down on this day, and rescuing from hell all the faithful souls who had died before him, including the babies killed by Herod who were his contemporaries, and the thief on the other cross. And then, what is a really original thought, Christ having to come back into his earthly body in order to show his friends that he had risen - almost like a second incarnation. I'm sorry to leave bits of it out - but you could always buy the book...

The only relation between the photo and the poem is "the arch" - but also, the beauty that Christ would have seen again and must surely have made it easier - though am sure it was more his friends that made waiting for heaven easier. But also, how the beauty here is always marred - witness the rubbish in the water (and the argument in the car on the way there) - whereas in heaven, there will be only the beauty.