Pieta
by Eric G. Muller
(Written while viewing Vincent van Gogh�s �Pieta� in the Vatican)
What arcane prescience
made one-eared Vincent
paint the Pieta during the
raven-year of his own
premature death?
There,
no longer bent over the native soil
the peasant Madonna leans forward
in her churning, wild, blue garment
giving Him away,
like a fruit of the field,
those she�s harvested, tended
and handed out her whole life long.
And in her sacrifice she offers
the worn and battered body
to the world,
while her smile holds the knowledge
she�s gained from nature
that all death is seed to new life �
never more than now!
What holy premonition
made this priestly painter
depict himself in the limp likeness
of the one who is hated
more than he is loved?
His death,
the sleep
from which
we have to awake �
A wake.
Vessels
(Inspired by a still life by Giorgio Morandi in the Vatican Museum)
goblets, glasses,
pewters, pitchers,�
jars, jugs,
cups, cauldrons,
mugs, magnums,
bottles, basins,
vials, vases;
filled and emptied,
emptied and filled,
broken, mended, discarded �
and found;
round and around
and upside down
and maybe back upright;
their form
mostly veiled
through function,
like you from me �
mostly;
us from them �
mostly.
He Let it Happen
(Written while viewing the frescoes by Fra Angelico in San Marco, Florence)
He let it happen,
���� the kiss, the spitting;
He let it happen,
���� the mocking and cursing;
He let it happen,
���� the whipping and beating;
He let it happen,
���� the ongoing goading to Golgotha
He let it happen,
���� the nailing, the pounding;
He let it happen,
���� the crowning and crucifixion;
He let it happen,
���� the final thrust of Longinus� lance
He let it happen,
���� knowing
It had to happen;
It all had to happen,
���� except for the breaking
���� of his bones;
that could not happen
���� so that the rest
���� could happen.
A Part in Us
there is a part in us
that betrays
it�s the yeast
that makes us rise
it�s the beast
that makes us fall
we get baked
or burned
depending on whether we
remember or forget
the part in us
that betrays
����������� San Marco, Florence, Italy
� Eric G. M�ller teaches literature and drama at the Hawthorne Valley High School. He is a� founding member of the Alkion Center where he heads the education department. His first novel, Rites of Rock (Adonis Press, 2005), examines the phenomenon of rock music. In Coffee on the Piano for You (Adonis Press, 2008) M�ller presents old and new poetry written mostly while traveling or drinking coffee. His second novel, Meet Me at the Met will appear in the summer of 2010 (Plain View Press). Articles, short stories and poetry have appeared in various journals and magazines.
