Poetry and the Passion

Involved today in contextual Bible study of St Mark's gospel, I found myself contemplating the enormity of the crucifixion and my own inability to look directly at what was going on. In one way, the story is so familiar that we are almost protected from the brutality and suffering involved, and it was hard to express a response that was other than horrified silence.

Perhaps it takes a great poet to respond for us. In his poem "The Musician", R.S.Thomas uses his customarily powerful imagery to suggest the whole sweep of God's involvement in the suffering of Christ and the totality of Christ's commitment to our redemption. It has for many years been a favourite of mine; I was delighted when a mixed ability class of S4 boys responded to it with empathy and understanding.

As Holy Week approaches, I would like to share this powerful poem with any to whom it may be new.

THE MUSICIAN

A memory of Kreisler once:
At some recital in this same city,
The seats all taken, I found myself pushed
On to the stage with a few others,
So near that I could see the toil
Of his face muscles, a pulse like a moth
Fluttering under the fine skin,
And the indelible veins of his smooth brow.

I could see, too, the twitching of the fingers,
Caught temporarily in art’s neurosis,
As we sat there or warmly applauded
This player who so beautifully suffered
For each of us upon his instrument.

So it must have been on Calvary
In the fiercer light of the thorns’ halo:
The men standing by and that one figure,
The hands bleeding, the mind bruised but calm,
Making such music as lives still.
And no one daring to interrupt
Because it was himself that he played
And closer than all of them the God listened.

R.S.THOMAS