The nightmare of His sepulcher

What hard travail God does in death!
He strives in sleep, in our despair,

And all flesh shudders underneath
The nightmare of His sepulcher.

The earth shakes, grinding its deep stone;
All night the cold wind heaves and pries;

Creation strains sinew and bone
Against the dark door where He lies.

The stem bend, pent in seed, grows straight
And stands.

Pain breaks in song.

Surprising
The merely dead, graves fill with light
Like opened eyes.

He rests in rising.

~Wendell Berry, 1980

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