Georgia O’Keeffe, “Single Calla Lily (Red)”
Spiritual Sunday
April is the season of flowers. Here’s a lovely Easter poem by the African American poet Claude McKay. Note how his worship is marked more by sensuous immersion than reflective theology. Faith works at deep levels.
The Easter Flower
By Claude McKay
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly
My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,
Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily
Soft-scented in the air for yards around;
Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf!
Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,
It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief
In the young pregnant year at Eastertime;
And many thought it was a sacred sign,
And some called it the resurrection flower;
And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine,
Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
