Volume > Issue > Blood, Water, Wine - Sacrament - Paradox Regained

Blood, Water, Wine – Sacrament – Paradox Regained

THREE POEMS

By J.R. Hochstedt Jr. | January-February 1984

Blood, Water, Wine

The midwife washed the blood and
wa­ter from the mother’s side.

By the blood and water born, by the
blood and water died

The one whose Word changed into wed­ding wine.

Whose death transforms the wine to
blood for Salvation’s sign.

 

Sacrament

When we have fed upon our brothers

And our glutted gullet smothers

The soul contracted, strained to breathe,

Then bring us to Your flesh to feed.

When the serpent’s tooth has pierced our heel,

Bring us, stumbling, to the rail to kneel.

To receive the cup the serpent blent.

The bitter cup of covenant,

The saving cup of sacrament.

 

Paradox Regained

The Man lived most fully who sought
least to live.

That Man gave the most who possessed
nothing to give.

The Man who filled others hung drained
and dry.

The Man crushed to earth is crowned
with the sky.

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