In my new book, Voiceless Choirs: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, I poetically interact with sacred texts, such as Psalms. There are 150 psalms, so I decided to write a poem based on one of every 10. From the fifth grouping, I chose Psalm 41.
There is a spiritual battle in the subtext of the original psalm. This isn’t surprising since the New Testament quotes it when satan prompts Judas to betray Jesus. Because of this spiritual element, I found myself using dreamlike imagery as I wrote. This, coupled with the note of joy at the end, has made it one of my favorites in the book.
I think the poem stands on its own, but if you’d like to read the original psalm as well, here’s a link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2041&version=HCSB
Incidentally, this was a wild poem to feed into an AI image generator (Adobe Firefly). The one I selected was by far the least bizarre 😆
Psalm 41
Hands that once joined with mine
in welcome and prayer now coil
around gossip’s ear to cloak flickering tongues.
Whispers slither around my feet,
rear back, and pause
to sink cold-blooded stares into me.
Fangs lightning into my ankles
and pump my veins full of sibilants.
My blood hisses and boils.
Writhing and lathered in sweat,
I feel a breeze come in slow-motion
gusts where I lie.
My glazed eyes glimpse
the tidal fanning of a winged shadow,
breathing the beat of its wings over me.
It plucks the leeching whispers from my legs,
which flail like hydra heads in free fall
as talons drag them into the sun.
Echos of birdsong ghost from the clouds,
settle on my wracked, poisoned frame,
and transfuse into me until
music is my marrow
and my prison-bar bones
rise up to dance.
A Wandering Minstrel 