EASTER 2015*

Easter service is over
and my ears ring Hallelujah
as the congregation is released
into a bright spring morning,
but there are joggers in the street
and ads for baseball on the radio.
One neighbor mows his lawn
while another paints a shutter
and it’s clear they don’t know
that everything has changed.

I am dismayed but then realize
it was like this in Jerusalem, too,
the whole town grateful
that last week’s commotion
over two thieves and a preacher—
the one from Galilee—
was over, and that life
could now return to normal.

*Written ten years ago but substantially rewritten and - I hope - improved before publishing here for Easter, 2025.

I wish Christian readers a glorious and joyous Easter. My most vivid Easter memories are of the choir proceeding up the aisle as the congregation joins in singing ‘Jesus Christ is Risen Today‘. Oh, and white chocolate Easter bunnies . . . I love white chocolate.

I will be signing copies of SLOW RIVERS, Poems from My Sixties at Schuler Books on 28th St in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 4 – 6 pm on Saturday, April 26th. Please stop by if you are anywhere nearby. SLOW RIVERS can be ordered through your local bookstore or online from bookshop.org.

Subscribe to be notified of new posts by email;
it’s free and your information is never shared.
Leave a comment so I know you were here
and please recommend this blog to a friend.

A New Poem Every So Often.
(No regular schedule right now; life gets in the way.)

Joseph Neely, all rights to original material reserved.