Tower of strength

Trinity Cathedral filling up for the second service of Easter morning.

Chantler63 Shakespeare Challenge and National Poetry Writing Month
Well-known phrases from Shakespeare
Day 20: ‘tower of strength’ (Richard III)

Trinity's first service of the morning was scarcely over before people started arriving for the second service. As I've mentioned, people in Portland (which is known as a markedly secular city) often come here on Christmas and Easter to hear the wonderful music. But others are here to connect with a tower of strength, or hoping to find a tower of strength, or simply wondering if it's possible that they might encounter a tower of strength. I pondered how to represent Jesus, who is my tower of strength, and decided that the best way would be to show the people he regards as his flock, both those who come doubting and those who come believing. May each one be met at the place of their deepest need.


I wrote a haiku poem today to try to encapsulate the various voices present at Trinity this Easter morning. The last stanza is my own voice.

INTERROGATION

What’s it mean to save?
Do you mind some call you knave?
How’d you leave your grave?

Did you die and rise?
Just what color were your eyes?
How’d you get so wise?

Human and divine?
Turning water into wine?
What light did you shine?

Are the Gospels true?
Where you are will I be too?
Conquer death with you?

How far do you see?
Are you here right now with me?
Tell, how can this be?

Once you struck me dumb.
‘Follow me,’ you said, and ‘Come!’
Now please lead me home.

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AI WEIWEI, TOWER OF STRENGTH

There are other towers of strength in the world today. One of them is the Chinese dissident, the artist Ai Weiwei. I don't know how he manages to retain his courage, his sense of humor, and his will to speak truth to power in the face of continued persecution by the Chinese Communist government. He has been falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned. He continues to make art, speak out, and provide hope to those who seek democracy in China.

"Through his work," Roberta Smith writes in the New York Times review of his work on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, "we feel the crushing vortexes that the Chinese government creates for its citizens, sometimes in groups, sometimes individually. It is not clear how often Mr. Ai will find ways to enter these maelstroms and make them hauntingly, even beautifully, visible. But for as long as he can we will be lucky."

Slideshow here. I found the photographs of his work immensely moving. Do read the article as well, and say an Easter prayer for Mr. Ai.