Fraction Hymn

τὸν χριστὸν ἔδει παθεῖν καὶ ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν Acts 17:3

The flowers break

Open the earth

Above our graves

While angels sing

A sempiternal litany

Our only response

Reciting once again

These favorite verses

Of poetic wisdom:

But I could not understand what had been written.

Winter was warm

Was thought warm

But wasn’t warm

Mr. Eliot knew

He was wrong

How we need

Spring summer autumn

Winter then spring

Again and again:

We need flowers breaking the earth above our graves.

It is necessary

In awful blooming

It is necessary

In sundered flesh

It is necessary

In sorrowing bones

It is necessary

In aching silences

It is necessary:

In this unrelenting agony of resurrection flourishing it grows.