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SUPPOSING HIM TO BE THE GARDENER

The Mary Magdalen Suite

Selected Poems:

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Born Again - Her First Unrecorded Death

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Modern Mary

BORN AGAIN - HER FIRST UNRECORDED DEATH

Mary is Baptised by John in the River Jordan

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a villanelle

He holds me as a cup of trembling,

from the depths of Jordans night,

wordless from his hands to morning.

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Wars, rumours of war, plots and scheming,

I have shed seven burdens, now contrite,

he holds me as a cup of trembling.

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Now a woman to His kingdom coming,

high above me clouds of nimbus light,

wordless from his hands to morning.

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Galilee in golden air is shining,

in walnuts, figs and olives bright,

he holds me as a cup of trembling.

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From these waters I am rising,

into the mystery of ecstatic flight,

wordless from his hands to morning.

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On the crowded shore, His face Im finding,

from the depths of Jordans night,

he holds me as a cup of trembling,

wordless from his hands to morning.

MODERN MARY

 

an English sonnet

Book no.1
Poem No.1

My future is alive and secure

in your imagination. Once, I know

I was marginalized as the poor

penitent and represented low

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gutter girls and then was pressed into service

as a saint

a patron for prostitutes

and half-way houses. But God suffice

to say, cannot anymore wear a mans suit.

 

I bring my femininity to the Divine

and an immediate and personal encounter

with transcendence. And there always was an

authentic me. Independent, alive, for

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my future is a alive and secure

in your imagination: safe and sure.

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© 2023 Jeff Guess
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