Who are we at Easter?

A fusion of Orthodox inconography, early American hymnody and contemporary poetry.

BY BARBARA PESCAN

Who are these who sing Allelulia

and call risen, risen indeed

one

dead long ago

whose words are so often amulets

against the necessary struggles


as if any words alone could:

    love against all odds

    sing with the lunatic

    reveal the nakedness of power

    deliver the dispossessed to choices again

    turn hope's prism for the blind to marvel

    smooth hard places into featherbeds for the broken

    wrest from nothing and no way

        the chance for children to grow whole

    stretch easy the backs that work

    bless all the world with our lives

        lived forgiving, alert for love


What fools, indeed,

who may never even discuss divinity

or agree on how much room there is anywhere

    for angels, again to dance

but who

in their ancient poetry

with its curious syntax   and

in their reckless yearning insist

insist

love never dies

survives after the grave   even here

and claims us   yes, now

and will not ever let us go.