Digital Painting by Patrick Murphy
My upcoming book, Voiceless Choirs: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, is getting closer to being finished. Next step is to get a proof-copy of the paperback. I also need to set up the e-book version.
One section of Voiceless Choirs contains poems based on traditional Christian hymns. Rather than just rehashing the hymns, I process them poetically, synthesizing hymn material with my own voice, devotional reflection, etc. My hope is to create something new that still connects in essence with the original.
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” has been a staple of Christian worship whose history dates to the middle ages. The text is a meditation on Christ’s suffering and its meaning for the Christian, and is set to moving, dirge-like music.
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
A bouquet of roses
coils fanged stems
around his head
this slow-pulling knot
sinks its bite until
his pierced skin
scatters crimson petals
a dead bloom,
his pallid face
hangs in shadow
away from the sun
A Wandering Minstrel 