Arrested, caged, indicted, sentenced, scourged,
Jerusalem has crumpled under blows.
The Lord’s left hand, a punishment divine,
Unmasks our enemy who swallows up
Alike the mourners, brides and bridegrooms, all,
Each bier, each cup, each tear. Why bears he so?
Our enemy intruded once before
When, cool and ripe, our day was winding down,
To blast our ground, to ground the snake, to plague
Our poor Jerusalem with pangs, to leave
Us skinned, forever on our knee, who falls
And falls again en route to Calvary.
He stops, he gazes, evermore to see.
Veronica, we owe this grace to thee.
Doug Taylor-Weiss served many years as a Protestant minister before entering into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2016. He teaches in various capacities and, with his wife, sings in two liturgical choirs. They live in Grand Rapids.
Doug attended the 2019 Colosseum Summer Institute, a course and workshop in the art of poetry for aspiring writers run by James Matthew Wilson. The Institute is an annual, intensive course and workshop in the art of poetry for aspiring writers who wish to apprentice themselves to the great and enduring tradition of Catholic letters.