Hi, Susan—
I like the terza rima connecting this poem to the Dantean tradition contemplating death and the afterlife. Mary Magdalene is such a multi-layered character, and you do a good job of exploring the tradition that she was a repentant sinner. In fact there is very little in the Bible to suggest this. Mark and Luke both mention in passing that seven demons were cast out of her, but the tradition that she was a repentant prostitute goes back only to the sixth century when Pope Gregory I proclaimed that she was the unnamed sinful woman in Luke, Ch. 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet and dried them with her hair. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Mary is presented as a respectable single woman with enough wealth to allow her to travel with Jesus and his chums. She is bold enough to stare down the raised eyebrows that a single woman traveling with thirteen unrelated men would elicit, and is unafraid of the Jewish and Roman authorities who crucified Jesus, showing up at the cross and his tomb, proudly announcing her association with the condemned criminal while Peter and all of the male disciples except John scuttle away in fear. More recently Dan Brown popularized the tradition of a romantic connection between Mary Magdalene and Jesus.
I wondered how to interpret line 5. Did you mean “regretting that my sinning ways were cut short,” or “able to feel remorse because my sinning ways had been cut short?”
To whom is Mary Magdalene speaking? Is the “you” God? Jesus? the reader? the skull?
My favorite is line 7. “A pinup for repentance. Of a sort.” This suggests that it is possible for repentance to contain a prurient dimension in which the penitent thrills to think of the sins for which he or she wants to atone. I assume that the skull is the “mute friend” who can be counted on not to judge the penitent for this.
I wondered about the word “reticence” in line 10. Is bone “reticent” or shy because it hides inside the more outgoing but less dependable flesh? I need a little more guidance on this.
Your last line was especially resonant and effective in drawing the poem together. You echo the phrase, “You know you do,” but with a difference. In line 3, you mean “You know you do deplore the deplorable deeds.” In line 13, you mean “You know that you do the very deeds that you deplore.”
Very thought-provoking piece!
Glenn
|
Threaded Mode
