Mom
"In spite of that, they call this Friday good."
- TS Eliot
"Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you - Crowded House"
"Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you - Crowded House"
I still remember that black blouse you wore.
I still remember how your skin shone like the sun
In the sky, the black clouds gathered
You swore
It being Good Friday, it would rain
Everytime it did
& I, child that I was, believed
Now you are gone
But still I do
Remember
& still, believe
Against all odds
That it rains
Each 'Sad' Friday, now
In your absence
& do you know, mother, it still does.
In Thiruvananthapuram
or where'er I am.
Now the raindrops fall
on my upturned face
streak it like tears
no more just for Him
but for you, too
gone to your home -
the sky is still crying -
for you are to me
what His mother was, to Him.
You swore
It being Good Friday, it would rain
Everytime it did
& I, child that I was, believed
Now you are gone
But still I do
Remember
& still, believe
Against all odds
That it rains
Each 'Sad' Friday, now
In your absence
& do you know, mother, it still does.
In Thiruvananthapuram
or where'er I am.
Now the raindrops fall
on my upturned face
streak it like tears
no more just for Him
but for you, too
gone to your home -
the sky is still crying -
for you are to me
what His mother was, to Him.
Pietà -- Michelangelo
Thiruvananthapuram is the capital and largest city of Kerala, India. Its name is derived from the Malayalam "thiru-anantha-puram" (The City of Lord Ananta). In literary works it was sometimes called Ananthapuri (from the Sanskrit "Syanandurapuram," The City of Bliss) but until 1991 it was officially Trivandrum, its anglicized name.
ReplyDeleteA pietà ("pity" or "compassion" in Italian) is a sculpture representing the mother of Jesus cradling her son after his crucifixion on Good Friday. The Michelangelo sculpture was commissioned in 1498 by cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas to serve as his funeral monument in the chapel of St. Petronilla, the daughter of St. Peter, but it was moved to the Basilica Papale di San Pietro, the world's largest church, in the 18th century. (In his 70s, Michelangelo was appointed capomaestro, the superintendent of the building program at St Peter's, 1n 1547, brought the construction to a point where it could be carried through, and became the principal designer of a large part of the building.) Traditionally, the subject had been carved from wood, and an elderly Mary was depicted with her grusomely mutilated son. But Michelangelo used a large block of marble and depicted a young woman. The marks of the crucifixion are limited to small nail marks and an indication of the wound in Jesus' side. It took him 2 years to complete the work, but after it was installed it was rumored to have been the work of Cristoforo Solari "il Gobbo" (the hunchbacked); Michelangelo broke into the chapel and carved MICHAELAGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN FACIEBA (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this) on the sash running across Mary's chest. It is the only work he ever signed.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Duane!
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