One of Anywhere Avenue’s recurring themes is the presence of God in City. As a recovering Catholic, the ceremony of the Church will always be in my head and is one of my initial introductions to poetry as an active communal act. Thinking about it for a hard second, I would even say that it would be my first exposure to performance poetry–the costumes of the clergy, the ringing of bells on the lifting of the Sacrament, the raining of Holy Water, the scent of Holy Smoke and the music that seemed more alive in the Spanish Saturday Night Mass as opposed to the more understated Sunday Morning Mass.
Yes, there is much poetry and art in the rituals of my youth and, to this day, I can participate in just about any Catholic ceremony with an equal amount of snark and distrust alongside a familiarity with the tomes of the Mass.
Here is today’s poem: equal parts prayer and irreverence towards the glorious City.
Good Friday
[Poem was here.]