Bij de vijfde zondag van de vasten
Beeld van Christus als de Goddelijke Zaaier in Steyl
‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…’
Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.
If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.
Malcolm Guite (Ibanda, 12 november 1957)
St. Anne’s Church in Ibadan, Nigeria, de geboorteplaats van Malcolm Guite
Zie voor de schrijvers van de 18e maart ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.