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A Black Jesus Poem

 

 

The Black Christ

By Arthur Shearly Cripps 

(b.1869)

(At Easter in South Africa)

PILATE and Caiaphas

They have brought this thing to pass-

That a Christ the Father gave,

Should be guest within a grave.

 

Church and State have willed to last

This tyranny not yet over-past,

His dark southern Brows around

They a wreath of briars have bound,

In His dark despised Hands

Writ in sores their writing stands.

 

By strait starlit ways I creep,

Caring while the careless sleep,

Bearing balms, and flow'rs to crown

That poor Head the stone holds down,

Through some crack or crevice dim

I would reach my sweets to Him.

 

Easter suns they rise and set,

But that stone is steadfast yet:

Past my lifting 'tis but I

When 'tis lifted would be nigh.

I believe, whate'er they say,

The sun shall dance an Easter Day,

And I that through thick twilight grope

With balms of faith, and flow'rs of hope,

Shall lift mine eyes and see that stone

Stir and shake, if not be gone.

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updated  28 July 2008

 

 

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Related files: The Black Nazarene     Black Christ in Flesh    Black Christ Poem   Blacks Worshipping Christ     Seven Last Words of Jesus  The Second Time Around  

Sermon on the Mount  Contextual Theology  Dialogue on Black Theology  The Black Religious Crisis  Interview with Howard Thurman  Howard Thurman   

Pan-Africanism and the Black Church  God of the Oppressed    Negro Spirituals and American Culture  Negro Spirituals and American Culture  The Spiritual and the Blues  

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