ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY POEM

 

ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY POEM

Writing in the pew, after worship,

Bell Choir practicing, each pew draped

with handmade quilts sewn during the year,

Bart’s directing choir,

an artist himself, jazz pianist,

Karen is on the near end

closest to where I sit. Next Sunday

they will ring for the congregation.

They’re practicing, O Come, O Come,

Emmanuel. God with us in the pew.

It’s my dad’s middle name, never

used by him, but he could sign the E

with a flourish. Karen plays four bells

at the same time—G, A, A flat, B flat.

They’re talking back and forth now.

Bart is laughing. My Notebook’s open, along

with Bonhoeffer’s, Cost of Discipleship.

I’m three weeks living with his work

on the Beatitudes. I’ll never finish.

Blessed are the merciful. [May I die,

right here, Lord?] For they shall receive

mercy. Jesus speaking to his disciples,

Bonhoeffer reminds us. They have

renounced their own dignity. Bonhoeffer's

27 years old writing this. The same age

as Jimi* and Janis when they died.

The year is 1933. Bonhoeffer will be

hanged in 1945, at the age of 39,

the same age as Flannery O’Connor,

Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm.

It will be spring right before Allied

Liberation. The day will be the 9^th

of April, sharing the same day

as my mother’s birthday. They’re

ringing again, the bells, Rejoice!

Rejoice! Bell ringers throwing

out the sounds with their arms.

The disciples have wed themselves

to the poor, the stranger, and the wronged.

They wear the clothes of shame

and dishonor. This is the beatitude,

great gift, given to me by my mother,

and I have passed it on to my children

who have wrapped others in mercy

for more than half a century. It’s

too much. I imagine my children

as bell ringers. Cowering before

their courage, I often find myself unable

to praise. I hear them most clearly

in Cannonball Adderley’s great

song, Mercy, released in 1964,

written by Joe Zawinul, Adderley’s

piano player—Austrian, by the way,

who often had to ride hidden

in the car driving in the South

during Jim Crow because everybody

but Ziwinul was black. Mercy, mercy, mercy,

how Adderley introduces the song. Often times

we’re not ready for adversity, he says,

Zawinul playing in the background.

Returning to hear the song on Youtube

over the years, is how I memorized

Adderley’s words, and his speaking

voice, repeating, Mercy, mercy, mercy.

Rhyme in adversity. Its marriage to trouble.

One time at Thanksgiving my sister drops

a bowl of olives, crying, Oh mercy me.

A granddaughter asks her why she said that.

She says, We laugh so we don’t have

to cry, Baby. Mercy. It’s the joke that hides

our treasure. The way Jesus says, Price paid.

The way Karen rings four bells.

*Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin both died in 1970.

Jim Bodeen

24-25 November 2024