The Gospels in Our Image

by Curzon, Daviduth; Curzon, David

• ISBN13: 9780151001613
• ISBN10: 0151001618
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-11-01
• Publisher: Harcourt on Demand

Summary

This unique anthology brings together over 160 poems directly inspired by the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Readers will be surprised that such world rand authors as Yeats, Rilke, Borges, Eliot, Plath, Milosz, Lawrence, Pasternak, Celan, Akhmatova, Auden, and Wilbur are incisive biblical commentators as well. The poems, which range in tone from playful to confrontational and from ironic to sublime, are set alongside the biblical passages that inspired them. The Annunciation, the Nativity, the Temptations in the Wilderness, the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and Resurrection, are just a few of the narratives that have captured these writers' imaginations. In revisting 2000 year old texts with a twentieth-century sensibility, the poets here bring meanin to them, and offer us a renewed appreciation of their importance.

Table of Contents

Introduction
John 1:14 (1964)	p. 3
Demiurge	p. 4
The Fatal Volume	p. 5
Born of Woman	p. 6
Annunciation	p. 9
The Annunciation	p. 9
The Annunciation	p. 10
Nazareth	p. 10
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries	p. 11
The Mother of God	p. 12
Annunciation	p. 13
Mary's Visitation	p. 15
Vermeer	p. 16
A Tour of Ein Kerem	p. 17
Mary	p. 19
Nativity Poem	p. 23
A Nativity	p. 24
Mary	p. 27
Journey of the Magi	p. 29
The Gift	p. 30
The Christmas Star	p. 32
The Magi	p. 36
The Magi	p. 36
The Magi	p. 37
The Magi	p. 38
Bethlehem	p. 39
That Night They All Gathered on the Highest Tower	p. 40
The Magus	p. 41
Magi	p. 42
The Three Magi	p. 43
Who Says	p. 45
Massacre of the Innocents	p. 46
Massacre of the Boys	p. 47
A Song for Simeon	p. 50
Temptation	p. 53
In the Wilderness	p. 54
from "The Prolific and the Devourer"	p. 55
Mr. Cogito Tells about the Temptation of Spinoza	p. 59
On the Marriage at Cana	p. 63
Cana	p. 64
Cana	p. 65
The Reason	p. 66
Cana Revisited	p. 67
Nicodemus	p. 69
Abundant Catch (Luke 5:4-10)	p. 73
From an Apocryphal Gospel	p. 75
from New Sermons and Preachings of the Christ of Elqui (1979)	p. 77
Beatitudes	p. 79
Those Who Carry	p. 80
The Garage Sale as a Spiritual Exercise	p. 81
The Old Men of Athens	p. 83
Gloss to Matthew V 27-28	p. 84
How Much Christian	p. 87
Commandments	p. 88
Love Your Enemy	p. 89
I Love My Enemies	p. 91
Sacred Wrath	p. 92
Crow's Theology	p. 93
Lord's Prayer	p. 95
Our Father	p. 96
Lord's Prayer	p. 97
Lord, You Have Ripped Away	p. 98
Our Daily Bread	p. 98
As We Forgive Those	p. 100
The Mill-Race	p. 102
N. N. Tries to Remember the Words of a Prayer	p. 104
Judge Not	p. 107
He Considers the Birds of the Air	p. 109
Matthew VIII, 28 ff	p. 111
Pig	p. 112
Readings	p. 113
With Her	p. 115
Faith Healing	p. 117
The Parable of the Sower	p. 119
Instructions to a Seed	p. 119
from "Pictures from Brueghel": IX The Parable of the Blind	p. 121
The Good Samaritan et Al	p. 123
Saint Martha	p. 125
Martha and Mary	p. 126
The Sons of Martha	p. 128
The Departure of the Prodigal Son	p. 131
from "The Prodigal Son"	p. 132
The Prodigal	p. 133
The Prodigal Son	p. 135
The Prodigal Son	p. 136
Return of the Prodigal Son	p. 139
"And, Not Crying in Vain"	p. 144
"Flowers, and tall-stalked grasses, and a bee"	p. 145
Unrighteous Mammon (Luke 16:9)	p. 147
In Dives' Dive	p. 149
The Raising of Lazarus	p. 151
from "Calvary"	p. 152
The Anti-Lazarus	p. 154
Lazarus	p. 155
Things of This World	p. 157
The Evil Days	p. 159
The Donkey	p. 161
A Small Fig Tree	p. 163
The Miracle	p. 164
Many Are Called	p. 167
For the Barren Woman	p. 169
The Day of My Death	p. 171
The Second Coming	p. 173
Matthew XXV:30	p. 175
The Last Supper	p. 177
This Bread I Break	p. 178
Last Supper	p. 179
Judas' Reproach	p. 181
Poetry	p. 183
Hamlet	p. 185
The Olive Garden	p. 186
Disciples Asleep at Gethsemane	p. 187
Gethsemane	p. 189
The Garden of Gethsemane	p. 191
from "Calvary"	p. 194
Hakeldama	p. 197
Saint Judas	p. 198
The Mother of Judas	p. 199
Jesus before Pilate	p. 201
Pilate	p. 202
Pilate's Wife	p. 204
Speculations on the Subject of Barabbas	p. 204
from "Horae Canonicae" II Terce	p. 207
Calvary	p. 208
The Passion of Our Lord	p. 209
from "Gnomes" A Sacrificed Author	p. 209
Luke XXIII	p. 211
The Discourse of the Good Thief	p. 212
A God	p. 215
Crucifixion	p. 216
Tenebrae	p. 217
Eli, Eli	p. 218
Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?	p. 219
The Killing	p. 222
Anno Domini MCMXLVII	p. 224
Meditations of Mr. Cogito on Redemption	p. 225
Chuang Tzu and Hui Tzu	p. 226
At a Calvary near the Ancre	p. 226
No Altarpiece	p. 227
Mourning	p. 228
Unkept Good Fridays	p. 229
Passion of Ravensbruck	p. 230
On the Cross	p. 231
Pieta	p. 233
Magdalene (I)	p. 234
Magdalene	p. 235
Christ Climbed Down	p. 237
from "Six Lectures in Verse": Lecture V	p. 241
Mary at Peace with the Risen Lord	p. 243
The Confession of Cleopas	p. 245
Easter Hymn	p. 247
Easter Hymn	p. 249
from Two Songs from a Play ("The Resurrection")	p. 251
In the End Is the Body	p. 253
John 1:14 (1969)	p. 254
Acknowledgments	p. 257
Permissions	p. 259
Notes on the Poems	p. 267
Index of Poets (with dates and nationalities)	p. 273
Index of Titles	p. 277
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