Jesu Joy

(2/2000)

When the meadows laugh with lively green, and the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene
When Marry and Susan and Emily, with their sweet round mouths sing “Ha, Ha, He”
(William Blake, Laughing song, excerpt)

I see the joy of Jesu shed
like water through
a shower head, or
better illustrated by
that funny fir-ball fountain on the square
where perforated tubes
jettison and spray
a fog of animated water.


I hear the joy of Jesu trilled
through living pores,
(a funny fir-ball planet laced with kids)
mouths bent back, like reaching birds
voices warped and breaking:
a conduit for living water.


A spear once split his side
but it would split with laughter …
If our world can not contain
the tally of His mighty works,
will all these mouths
of bitsy teeth, or parts
of snagle-lip and spit on the gums
be able to express his joy?


Here is the joy of Jesu:
One billion children
on the bounce
all laugh eyed and goofy.
Hop, skip, jump …
all rollicking and rolled,
fantastic hoots, irrational jokes
about stiff language:
"Do you love cake? Then you should marry it!"


Ha Ha hha ha ha ha.


Here is the joy of Jesu:
"I see you behind my hands," tap your shoulder
on the other side and run
or beg a chase around the Monkey bars:
Nana Nana na na they all sing:
The first universal sentence.


Here is the joy of Jesu:
Whistle din upon the dawn,
some trillion birds in pouring song,
blend monkeys and hyenas too
in one colossal laugh.


Here is the joy of Jesu
shining on, or through
a single face.
Anna's eyes are lifted up
all jolly with the tease.
She holds a toad toward my face
knowing it will make me squirm.


Here is the joy of Jesu:
Held in check, against he Hoover Dam
of present tense, or recent past;
For we esteemed Him smitten,
man of Sorrow, friend of grief.
Here is the Joy of Jesu
Veiled:


How should we feel
if in our sin
or varied acts of groping idiocy
we should here him laugh?


He knows the healing end
and the joke that is on us.


Here is the joy of Jesu
Squeezed Like a belly laugh
that will not hold:
A smile or a wink, a low
chuckle dressed as thunder
on the wind.


For, if we've seen his pleasure
pressed through these:
Mouths of babes
and barking pups and bear-kind on the roll...


How much more
will this joy be
when HE,
the maker of the giggle-flex
or adolescent squeal
steals the show, and splits the sky
with pent up righteous zeal.


Here is the Joy of Jesu:
Calling on His blushing bride.
He has hinted long enough
and now makes ready to display
His eternal tender love
with a Ha-Ha
Hallelujah.



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