The Sin Eater

The Sin Eater

He came down from the mountainside
This was his calling; his path
If people saw him,
he would not see them.
Children were hushed indoors
While he passed by.
It wasn't leprosy.
He was the sin eater.
It was a ceremony of bread and beer
Held over the warm body of the dead.
The sin eater entered
Hated and feared but invited.
A wooden bowl of beer would be
Passed over the body.
He would drink and say,
"I give easment and rest
Now to thee, dear man."
Then take a piece of bread
from off the chest
Of the deceased and continue,
"Come not down the lanes
Or in our meadows.
For thy own peace,
I pawn my own soul, amen"

Proud we are to be past
Those pagan ways
But when we were dead
In trespasses and sins,
the rejected sin eater came
He took the bread and said
"This is my body
Which was broken for you"
And the cup,
"This is my blood
Which was shed for you
Someday, you will walk
The lanes and meadows
Of paradise."


This practice is still done in appalachia. It was also popular during the middle ages.

On Singh

On Reading Darshan Singh

Faith is a madness
That reason has no reasons for.
Logic keeps God laughing,
Though it gets us through the day.
The day God died,we lived
Then died again
By making sense out of it,
Not knowing there was
No sense in it,
Outside of Presense
Faith is nonsense.
Faith is not sense.
Faith is not seeing,
Or seeing without eyes
Faith is a blind man's cane
Tap, tap, tapping on God's door
While He is on the other side
Knock, knock, knocking on ours.
He is the one writing love poetry.
We swing our saucy skirts
And give no limen to love.
This is the sum of it all, Darshan,
It is madness not to believe
And believing is madness too.


Note: Darshan is a Hindi word that means to behold and enjoy the elevating presence of a loved one to the extent that one becomes totally lost in him or her; a kind of insanity. Also it is the first name of an Urdu poet who wrote "Love's Last Madness."

Peniel

Peniel

The Angel of the Lord is down by the river.
Also there, the candidates –
The would-be men and women of God,
Contesting for the blessing.

Look not for the one who returns
With church bell voice
That pierces to your gut.
Nor the one with shining face
That makes you feel faint.

Look, look for the one who limps,
For there is no other way to return
From wresting with God.

CurtMortimer

Jacob is the original wrestler with God. Just before the wrestling at Peniel, Jacob had been at Bethel. There he saw a vision of a ladder ascending up into heaven. The angel declared an all inclusive promise to him there. Jacob was a grasping personality. If there was a blessing to be had, he was going to have it. Thus here at Peniel he wasn't going to let the heavenly messenger go until he blessed him. In the poem, I was thinking of young men and women in seminary or in bible school. In reality it applies to anyone who wants God's blessing in their life.