For us, who stepwise rise up Babel’s stairs,
your chant of made-up words for unseen things,
here cascades off of stone. Keen sound, it pairs 
with intellect as candlelight which sings!
If melody as meat baked sweet in milk
makes golden aspirations into arks,
then covenants with you we bind in silk
of sound to swaddle ears. Our barge embarks
on choppy seas of doubt, then leaps from crests
of faithless waves to fall through darkened mist.
Your shimmer tune is buried when Death bests
the seeker’s ears of flesh. Our chords desist.
For us though, echoes never die; they boom
out low your song to empty Joseph’s tomb.

Notes and Discussion Invitation

Thank you for reading my Holy Week poem. I invite you to share your reactions, and other reflections on Easter, in the comments section below.

This Shakespearean style sonnet references the music of 12th century Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Similar to Eliza R. Snow in the Mormon tradition, she was a talented poet and thought leader of her time. A published author, she even experienced visions. In 2012, Hildegard was sainted by Pope Benedict XVI. To learn more about her life and contributions to Christianity, read this Encyclopedia Britannica article. The poem also references the Book of Mormon story of the Jaredites’ voyage to the promised land in Ether 6 following the confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.

The featured image, from the New York Public Library Digital Collections, is titled “Rachel’s grab am Bethlehem-Wege” (Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem). For more information, visit the NYPL’s exhibition webpage.