Sand Opera Lenten Journey Thank You

Easter

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
            --John 20

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May the stones be rolled away. May the prisoners be freed. May the tombs be emptied. May the wars end. May the wounds be healed. May we believe. May we have mercy on ourselves and others. May mourning become morning. May we turn to the Light.

Hi Philip,

Since I first started reading your book I have had Matt 6: 22-23 in my head, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Over the years I have talked about this passage with a few friends.  It has struck me that the person in the passage thinks he is seeing light but it is really darkness.  He thinks his “light” is good, but it is really evil. I can’t help but feel that this is somewhat true for those perpetrating such horrible acts upon fellow humans as described in your book. They thought they were doing good. They thought that they were seeing light.  Oh, that just makes the darkness more dark. This has been heavy on me until this week when I realized that we are about to remember and celebrate the ultimate example of this. On that darkest of days, those who took Jesus’ life, thought they were doing good by their actions. But thanks be to God that he was able to overcome and turn that ultimate darkness into light. Thanks for taking the time and persevering through the painful task of creating this wonderful book. It is a piece of restoration. It is helping to turn that darkness into light.

Pax,

Steve Conner

Thank you to everyone who participated in this Lenten Journey, as contributors and readers, both the below participants and Maureen Doallas, who was writing her own poems in response to these poems, and sharing all of it widely.

Participants

1.      Luke Hankins & “Compline” (2/10/16)

2.      Hilary Plum & “Illumination” (2/11)

3.      Peter Molin & “Lane McCotter” (2/12)

4.      Paul Lauritzen & “In the name” (2/13)

5.      Tyrone Williams & “The Blues of Javal” and “In the beginning” (2/14)

6.      Timothy Liu & “The Blues of Javal Davis” (2/15)

7.      Hayan Charara & “next day,” (“Animals”) (2/16)

8.      Joe Hoover & Peter Molin & “The Blues of Charles Graner” (2/17)

9.      Shakir Mustafa & “his name is G” (2/18)

10.   Susan Averna & “the third day” (2/19)

11.   Wafaa Bilal & “Handling the Koran”(2/20)

12.   Raymond Lennon & “The Blues of Ken Davis” (2/21)

13.   Marwa Helal & Peter Molin & “The Blues of Lynddie England” (2/22)

14.   Christopher Allen-Doucot & “now I am what I saw” (2/23)

15.   Huda Al-Marashi & “Muslim Burial” (2/24)

16.   Roy Scranton & “Joe Darby” (2/25)

17.   Danny Caine & Marwa Helal & final page of “abu ghraib arias” (2/26)

18.   Solmaz Sharif & “Woman Mourning Son,” (“Drone”) (2/27)

19.   Layla Azmi Goushey & Sarah Browning & “Recipe from the Abbasid” (2/28)

20.   Nawal Nasrallah & “Recipe from the Abbasid”  (2/29)

21.   Nawal Nasrallah & Zeina Hashem Beck & “A Toast” (3/1)

22.   Mary Austin Speaker & Joe Hall & “Home Sweet Home” (3/2)

23.   Pamela Hart & “The Iraqi Curator’s PowerPoint” (3/3)

24.   David Roderick & “Black Site Q” (3/4)

25.   Dunya Mikhail & Salih Altoma & “Asymmetries” (“Bag of Bones”) (3/5)

26.   Naomi Shihab Nye & “Salaam Epigrams,” (“Gate A-4”) (3/6)

27.   Charles Ellenbogen & “War Stories” (3/7)

28.   Philip Metres & “when the bombs fell,” (prose pieces) (3/8)

29.   Danny Caine & “In the cell of else” (3/9)

30.   Amy Breau & “I had no names” (3/10) (prose piece)

31.   Craig Santos Perez on “She asks, is that man crying” (“from understory”) (3/11)

32.   Fady Joudah & “what does it mean” (“Mimesis”) (3/12)

33.   Jeff Gundy &  Dante Di Stefano & “When I Was a Child” (3/13)

34.   Marwa Helal & Angele Ellis & “Black Site (Exhibit I).” (3/14)

35.   Philip Metres & “Love Potion #42” (3/15)

36.   Kim Stafford & Saddam’s Fingerprints (3/16)

37.   Philip Metres & “Etruscan Cista Handle” (3/17)

38.   Paige Webb & Performance Videos of “Cell/(ph)one” (3/18)

39.   Nomi Stone & “what consequence is a body” (3/19)

40.   Deema K. Shehabi & “in the wake of” (3/20)

41.   Becca J.R. Lachman & “I was planning an essay on imagery” (3/21)

42.   Chris Kempf & “You look at me” (3/22)

43.   Hayan Charara & “As if” (“Usage”) (3/23)

44.   Josie Setzler & “On the flight overseas” (3/24)

45.   William Kelley Woolfitt & “so I could pass the time (3/25)

46.   Priscilla Wathington & Harvey Hix & “Compline” (3/26)