palm procession
Hosanna sing
a road of robes
for colt and King
the people praise
He’s here! He’s come!
our saving grace
triumphant one
the figless tree
is cursed and dead
the time of temple
is at its end
and we will eat
with Christ, a last
before our treason
comes to pass
for come it does
with blood and bruise
denied and mocked
the King of Jews
and when He dies
on nail and wood
the tapestry
is torn for good
centurion
in witness, awed
proclaims the man
the Son of God

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:3-7

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John 12:3

image: imgkid; Annointing His Feet by Wayne Fort

the guarded grass
beige and pressed
borders uneven sidewalk
hoping for persuasion
that temps are true
the bent blades
peak at our shoes
as we amble by
our pace
only marginally varied
as angled pavement
requires
good grass
get up, be green
the frost is past
the days at last
converge
with expectation

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

image: darrick & rafe, starting an afternoon walk

sunshine streams
and beams
the windows warm
and snow seems invisible
impossible
from the high view
of March
all that was dim
that closed us in
is wind away
and promise is credible
spring undeniable
zest
the best
onward

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. – Hosea 6:3

There is, of course, this difference, that in the natural spring the crocus cannot choose whether it will respond or not. We can. We have the power either of withstanding the spring, and sinking back into the cosmic winter, or of going on into those ‘high mid-summer pomps’ in which Our Leader, the Son of man, already dwells, and to which He is calling us. It remains with us to follow or not, to die in this winter, or to go on into that spring and that summer. – C.S Lewis, God in the Dock

image: Spring: March Hares, by James Mayhew