Here is my possible poem for Triad: Ekphrastic Theme. I wrote the poem, and then read the explanation. I edited some after reading it. I am glad I waited to read the explanation. I didn’t catch the guy with the booger til afterward. It could’ve been a very different poem then, ;-). “Hand picked” perhaps? HA

Safely Through Another Week”

After the painting “Jesus Exalted in Song,” by Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Milwaukee Museum, Narratives, page 5

The maker is in the music.

We show up Sunday, disheveled, disjointed

until we open our music.

Our chests swell with bellowed breath.

The black and white notes

on the page map the way.

The lyric is the journey,

the text crescendos to a chant

knowing there is something bigger

than squabbles.

Our voices memorize the mysterious.

The power of our parts is a chorus,

an antidote to argument.

Our music dissolves discord.

We exhale harmony.

We sing to save our warring world.

We sing to save the children

caught in the crossfire.

We sing a shared rhythm

a collective song

a communion,

a co-existence,

a creative calm.

Singing this one moment

this one time

for all time.

REVISION 08-06-2024

Safely Through Another Week