2 Corinthians 4:8
I/ Fr. Chrysostom Chang
A flowering of wire
Binds the bare wrists behind;
The opened skin a fire
He suffers to remind
Of one before who wore a crown of briar.
II/ Fr. Francis Tan Tiande
All other petals fled
As pelting snow descends,
Stiff boughs awash in red
Blossoms the season lends
Blush like the beaten prisoner’s lifted head.
*
Cold breath in air appears
As he toils through the cold,
Exiled these thirty years.
His stiffening arms enfold
A girl who wanders through the snow in tears.
III/ Gertrude Li Minwen
Within the cell she’ll wait
As does the lily’s heart
Beneath the snowfall’s weight,
However unsure what part
She plays within the suffering Church’s fate.
IV/ Fr. Joseph Li Chang
After the lamp-lit Mass,
The corporal stashed away,
He seemed a shattered glass
And now began to pray
That with his suffering his breath might pass.
*
The spring rains come at last
To soften frozen soil.
The heart regrets the past;
The stomach longs for oil.
Green shoots appear where last year’s seeds were cast.
V/ Fr. John Huang Youngmu
They are too long, the days
Of laboring iron and stone.
Our food a bowl of maize,
Our prayers a silent moan,
We, the afflicted, are yet full of praise.
James Matthew Wilson is the Poet-in-Residence of the Benedict XVI Institute. His Most recent book of poems is Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024).