Confession

Painful, it
empties tears, embraces
humility and, tingling,
moves forward.
The body relaxes,
throws off anxiety, with
lies uncovered, displaying
some truth, a step
toward assurance, uninsured.

Theology

Theology is a (poetic) bodily act.
Its project of “detachment” is most fully
realized when the body and soul

are found to be in harmonious union.
Then the theologian hymns
beautiful poems to God. The hand, with a pen,

spills out in verse, by the soul’s meter, images of divine mystery,
often found in the most mundane experiences
of daily life. The heart, the pulse of a human life,

is given voice, helping humanity to re-imagine

the image

it has bestowed upon itself by

seeing that humanity is to be perfected
as it is—the image of God, ordained by God.
Preachers begin to preach

a Gospel, not of an escapist hope for the soul of
one day leaving the confines of the body, but
of the possibilities of striving toward

the perfected life now, in the body.
The strife, struggle, suffering, and solemnity
of life is redeemed by the catharsis

of moving words that point to an end—
putting affliction to verse—an end of
the pain, perversion, privatization, and pestilence.

Instead of being alone in their heads, people
are empowered to share
together in the community of divine life,

bound together by prayer, conversation, and letter.