Good Friday 2024 by Gerard Garrigan, OSB
"One solemn day in late, late March / The hour fast approaching three . . ."
The sound of birds all making sounds
But none of them employing words
As fallen Man is wont to do
I heard in chorus all redound
As I was strolling in the woods
One solemn day in late, late March
The hour fast approaching three
The day believers they call Good
The cardinals bedecked in blood, blood-red
Were tweeting unseen tree to tree
The robins chirping on the ground
While one bird, one refused to sing
Instead hammered on the sound of dead,
Recalled the doleful hammer’s pound
That nailed our Savior to a tree
Whose saving blood has washed us clean,
For us the lost has heaven found
Gerard Garrigan, OSB is a Benedictine monk of Saint Louis Abbey in St. Louis, Missouri. Free digital copies of his poetry may be obtained by emailing him at frgerard@priory.org.