For a few years now I’ve been taken with reflections on Mary Magdalene’s Easter morning encounter with the risen Christ. From writers and artists who laud her visceral desire to hold onto Jesus- this embodied spiritual love- to theologians who vividly argue the relevance of Jesus’ request that she not hold on, for he is ascending to his Father, I feel blessed by the rich nexus of interpretation that this story has become. In this poem, which is infused with lines quoted from two other poets, I grapple with my own musings.

“Mary”

He asked me to love him with a love stronger than death.
It wasn’t so hard when I heard his voice call me in the garden,
wasn’t so hard when my heart carried the fervor and my feet carried me back among the others, Offset:
I was ablaze with Truth. In his being set free, I was too.

away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done

But from here–
Do I emerge into oblivion, or set fire to all around me?
Or do I keep still until everything is suddenly ablaze, as it was in the beginning (is now and ever shall be), waiting for those moments his voice reveals the flame–
he revealed love and love revealed him

Rabboni, you will always be to me a mystery,
you who came to me the pearl of great price, became oyster opened tomb whose depths I cannot plumb.
And yet I saw the plumb line of justice turn to mercy, the veil of the temple torn, the far reaches of the human mind met face to face, forgiven.

It is not your touch or sight, your scent or sound that does me in–
It is this love stronger and infinitely more tender than death.

first italicized quote: Walt Whitman, “A Clear Midnight”
second italicized quote: Frank Topping, An Impossible God