Paper Savior

It was the most daring of coups:
Taking on flesh of an earthly savor,
Incarnation: exploding off paper.

Augmenting humanity’s legal due
For the pleasure of Her Maker–
It was the most daring of coups!

Not condescending to ape her
But dust with divinity to infuse:
Incarnation exploding off paper.

Yielding the One for the ransom of few,
Burning the oil of gladness on an eternally scarred Taper.
It was the most daring of coups.

His divine equality hewn,
Her infinite worth beyond the Shaker–
It was the most daring of coups,
Incarnation: exploding off paper…

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The above poem is a villanelle, a charming form originating in Italian fields.  Over many centuries, it has solidified into a strict structure that dictates how many lines, how they should rhyme, and where you must place the refrains.  It is thought to have been birthed in the songs shared by agricultural workers, rhyming in time to their tasks.  The repetition is almost meditative, and by cultivating themes in the mind, a villanelle mimics the planting and harvesting that inspired it.

At a glance (from Norton’s Anthology of poetic forms):

1. It is a poem of nineteen lines.
2. It has five stanzas, each of three lines, with a final one of four lines.
3. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas.
4. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.
5.  These two refrain lines follow each other to become the second-to-last and last lines of the poem.
6. The rhyme scheme is aba.  The rhymes are repeated according to the refrains.

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I love love love this verse form!  I think it’s perfect for contemplating the Incarnation.  The dust and the dirt, the plowing and the perfecting, the harrowing horror of it all—the body of the Christ has been eternally bonded to the Earth.  The Word became flesh; the spoken Law of God is forever made one in a new Man—a Who that could conquer Death, hold the keys to damnation.  The gentle Farmer who cultivates our hearts by laying bare His back for the furrowing of the World.

Selah.

courtesy of mohzart on Deviant Art