Anima Christi

An Easter poem, with an inspiring painting above by Paula Mayberry. It was inspired by a Good Friday service streamed from Brecon Cathedral with Archbishop John Davies, and some Charles Williams came in ("The Greater Trumps"), Mary Poppins ("Feed the Birds, especially Cathedral part of song with choir), George MacDonald ("At the Back of the North Wind"), C.S. Lewis ("Farewell to the Shadowlands"), and of course the Prophet Isaiah.

Anima Christi

In Brecon Cathedral, the Saints look down:
Outside, empty streets, deserted town,
As if God had abandoned world;
The black rider with banner unfurled:
The greater trump: the sign of death,
Of struggling, painful, dying breath;
Weep: so many died, lives lost,
As pestilence renders savage cost;
But each remembered, yes each one,
Each was someone’s mother’s son;
And not forgotten, each left a mark,
However slight, however deep the dark;
And even where in pauper’s grave,
So far and distant from the nave,
Of that great Cathedral, silent, quiet,
The Spirit comes, despite the blight:
A mighty wind, with tongues of fire,
Across the land, and round the spire,
Across the sea, and across the sand,
Takes them away, from shadowland;
For the door is opening into light,
And none can stop it, no fell wight,
No deadly plague, no deadly snare,
Now with the dying in their prayer;
The stone rolled back, so nearly time,
The bells ring out, the clocks do chime;
The captives free, the sign of grace,
For all who dwell in time and space;
It is Easter day, the dawn will break
Death is no more: awake, awake!