Knots Undone

Two Creatures glided airily through the Valley of the “Espoused”. *

Hand-in-hand, they flowed erratically, east to west.

She, tugged him forcefully,

while communing incessantly and loudly for him to retreat with her;

            For Heaven’s sake.

He struggled oppositely, wordlessly, toward the darkening, western horizon,

            Hellbent.

The sun slowly sank below the mountains facing them,

as the duo reached the middle of the vast encircling vale.

Shadows buoyed briefly, then evaporated to somber obscurity.

Finally, Hope loosed her grip on Despair,

retracing her path to await the re-emergence of the Light

from her earthly orbit around it.

Hope settled upon a grassy knoll, eyes searching for her companion.

Despair continued west, as the rising moon stimulated silhouettes

to their proper perspective.

Nearing the west end of the mountainous enclosure,

He came upon a large Pistachio tree

            bereft of its leaves and fruit by an angry chinook.

The towering terebinth stood sentinel, witnessing

the spiritual dynamics that swirled the Breeze’s Breath

to rest upon Hope and Despair.

Despair looked up and pondered the Judas tree

and its unholy alliance with his unpaid toll .  .  .

in this, the dark night of his soul.

He looked back, and his sight telescoped rapidly through the glen.

At the eastern edge, he spied a figure sitting on the Rock of Peter.

He mindfully scrutinized the difference

            between the Rock’s ransom and the tree’s sanction.

Despair’s mission returned to the Judas Tree before him.

Curiously, a rope descended from the highest arm.

Circular it was, with neither Beginning nor End.

Thick and coarse, the fibrous strand had a series of knots, interval-ed evenly,  

facilitating hand-over-hand ascent.

Little did Despair consider the serpent’s role in scattering the knots;

            fifty-five of them all told—providing an opportunity for redress.

Alternately, confusion and disorder served as Despair’s lair,

the Scatterer’s scheme.

He mused forlornly about the “knots” in his own life,

while glancing back, again, in search of Hope;

but there was no Hope to be found.

He began his ascent of the rope, using the ties to aid his climb

toward the highest limb where ancient Word says Judas lost Hope.

Each interval on the gamut upward elicited a vocal comment from Despair:

            “Anger”           “Envy” “Pride”            “Gluttony”       “Sloth” “Avarice”        “Lust”

            “What I have done.” “What I have failed to do.”  “Through my Fault.” 

Then Michael swooped in over nature’s hovel—suddenly, mysteriously, wordlessly;

His sword sheathed in a shower of Shalom.

The Prince’s light washed over a cross

suspended mysteriously from a shorter, knotted cord, 

            bred from the longer one.

Despair arduously reached toward the last ligature.

A Voice whispered in raspy agony:

            “Despair—look at me.”

He was witness to the tortured command, voiced from an image

of a wounded Corpus swaying on a dangling cross,

swaying, invitingly from Time’s Memorial Cross.

Five wounds shed drops of mercy

on a mass of humanity at the base of the tree;

their petitions of thanksgiving serving as a salve for the Victim’s

            Sacrifice—His obedience to the One who “begot” Him.           

Despair spun around on his knotted course to perdition,

and, again, searched frantically for Hope.

He spied her, far from the maddening, praying crowd,

alone, fingering a smaller, beaded, string of communication.

The scene’s Salvation presented Itself for the taking. . .

            For Heaven’s sake.

Despair began to retreat downward, no longer

            Hellbent.

Using the same links for his descent,

he was aware of an interior voice reciting words of Hope:

“Humility”       “Admiration”  “Forgiveness”            “Zeal”  “Generosity”

“Moderation”  “Chastity”       “Blessed are the poor, the forsaken, the mournful.”

Once grounded, a scent of roses excited his sense.

In a cleft to his left, another apparition:

A beautiful woman

Undoing the Knots in his lifeline.

On open plane, Despair flew toward Hope,

arriving at the Rock of Peter just as the Son rose,

manifesting a bright, unfamiliar horizon of his KEN. **

He and Hope clasped hands again,

and soared into the New Dawn of Light.

By Dick Amman, Parishioner, Our Lady of Lourdes, Beulah

Knots Undone: Author's Explanation

This poem is done in free verse.  It was motivated by a friend who was going through some hard times.  His despair was quite evident in his conversations.  I decided to write a narrative poem about the two opposite reactions to the vicissitudes of life.

In the poem, Despair is a metaphor and personified as a name of a depressed being, devoid of any belief in a salvific, presence in this life.

Hope is given the same treatment as despair, but represents a positive outlook at life, fortified by prayer and devotion.

The Valley of the “Espoused” serves as a setting for the narrative; a setting that would be familiar to the intended audience.  The Hebrew word for “espoused” or “married is Beulah, which can be found in Isaiah 62:4 (KJV).

Hope and Despair are in a “tug of war” regarding the purpose of life and the benefits of prayer and penance.

The “Tree of Judas, the “terebinth,” and the “Pistachio Tree” are one and the same tree.  Terebinth is a Hebrew word for tree, and pistachio trees are common in Palestine.  It was that kind of tree and that setting where we get the biblical account of Judas’ suicide by hanging.

The “knotted” rope represents the Rosary, and the 55 knots represent the five decades. 

While struggling up the rope, Despair gives voice to the seven capital sins and parts of the Confiteor.  The smaller rope is “bred” from the larger one and contains the cross and image of the wounded Corpus of Christ.  The wounds shed blood on the mass of humanity praying prayers of penance at the base of the tree (cross).

The voice gives a command: “Despair.  Look at me.” Thde reader can infer a deeper conversation took place, and conversion begins to take hold.  The “scatterer” represents Satan.  Despair begins his retreat from his intended suicide while voicing the virtues opposite the 7 capital sins and parts of the Beatitudes.  He also smells roses and has a vision of Mary, under her title “Undoer of Knots.”

Despair sees Hope praying the Rosary to combat Satan’s hold on Despair.  She is perched on the “Rock of Peter,’ which represents the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

The two join hands; Despair has a new name (KEN) which means “new understanding.

The narrative concludes at “Son-rise,” and they walk hand-in-hand into the Light of Christ.

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