His graven hands go offering life from Death

who thought Christ took more than He could bear.

Death rejoiced at the sound of the hammer’s clang

of the nail into the wood as the Son of God sang,

“Eloi! Eloi!” and it leaves us wond’ring to where

His graven hands go. Offering life from Death,

an open hand comes with holy fire burning brightly.

See the names written on the palm

Behold the Lamb and sing the psalms!

And understand what precisely

His graven hands go offering. Life from Death

seems strange – and also a roundabout way.

Why must the former follow the latter?

In a play created by the maker of matter,

what motivation and reason made

His graven hands go offering life? From Death,

we have been delivered if we so choose.

A path provided if we take the first step

away from the walk of death should we accept

the engrained, engraved reality, in that truth;

His graven hands go offering life from Death.

This poem’s styling was taken from Christian Wiman’s Every Riven Thing, which is a poem whose syntax changes in the repeated line, allowing for different interpretations of the line to happen. I loved the idea of it all and thought that I’d give it a shot.