{"id":15686,"date":"2015-02-19T09:34:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=15686"},"modified":"2015-02-19T09:34:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:34:35","slug":"making-ashes-out-of-you-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2015\/02\/19\/making-ashes-out-of-you-and-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Making ashes out of you and me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"RELIGION_PLAYS_AN_IMPORTANT_PART_IN_THE_LIVES_OF_RESIDENTS._THE_LARGEST_GROUP_OF_CHURCHGOERS_ARE_ROMAN_CATHOLICS._A..._-_NARA_-_558387\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What a shame that Ash Wednesday comes but once a year. For many of us, that\u2019s the only opportunity we have to experience what many people consider\u00a0the lyrical poet Thomas Conry\u2019s masterwork<\/a>. Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/p>\n

The first lines are something of a ruse, are they not? Listen:<\/p>\n

We rise again from ashes,
\nfrom the good we\u2019ve failed to do.
\nWe rise again from ashes,
\nto create ourselves anew.
\nIf all our world is ashes,
\nthen must our lives be true,
\nan offering of ashes, an offering to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We are lulled by the conventional rhyme scheme, ABABABB, into expecting that the theme will be conventional, as well. \u00a0The speaker cannily completes the rhyme by using the same word, \u201cashes,\u201d three times, as if to signal, \u201cNothing new here, no \u00a0particular reason to pay attention.\u201d Even the finial sounds of the words, \u201cashes,\u201d \u201cdo,\u201d \u201cashes,\u201d \u201canew,\u201d and once again \u201cashes,\u201d followed by \u201ctrue\u201d and \u201cyou\u201d \u2014 do you hear it? \u00a0the \u201csh\u201d followed by \u201coo\u201d . . . it almost sounds like the soft, untroubled breath of a sleeper. \u201cShh . . .ooo.\u201d \u00a0Our narrator appears almost to be snoring, does he not? He is deliberately lulling us to sleep.<\/p>\n

But a surprise awaits us in the second stanza.<\/p>\n

We offer you our failures,
\nwe offer you attempts,
\nthe gifts not fully given,
\nthe dreams not fully dreamt.
\nGive our stumblings direction,
\ngive our visions wider view,
\nan offering of ashes, an offering to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gone are the soft sibilants of the previous lines, and instead, we are confronted with deliberately jarring plosives (\/b\/ \/p\/ \/t\/ \/d\/) in \u00a0\u201cGifts not fully given, \/ \u2026 dreams not fully dreamt.\u201d Not fully, indeed. \u00a0The very percussive violence of the sound is a statement: \u00a0the speaker has awoken, and he is in distress, perhaps stuttering and spluttering like a confused patient who was supposed to be etherised upon a table, but they ran out of ether. \u201cGive our stumblings direction,\u201d he haltingly\u00a0pleads\u00a0\u2014 but then subsides again into the inarticulate vagueness, perhaps experiencing a swollen tongue: \u00a0\u201cgive our visions wider view,\u201d he mouths with a wagging jaw, in an achingly poignant parody of the semi-conscious man struggling to make sense of a world where significance seems always to be verging on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Notice that in this second stanza, the rhyme scheme has sutbly shifted from\u00a0the pedestrian\u00a0ABABABB to the chaotic and freewheeling\u00a0ABCBDEE. This indicates\u00a0that the speaker is confused.<\/p>\n

The third stanza seems to find the speaker in a contemplative mood, lapsing again into what appears, at first, to be conventional, even clich\u00e9d imagery: \u00a0rising from ashes, sunshine turning to rain, and so on:<\/p>\n

Then rise again from ashes,
\nlet healing come to pain,
\nthough spring has turned to winter,
\nand sunshine turned to rain.
\nThe rain we\u2019ll use for growing,
\nand create the world anew
\nfrom an offering of ashes, an offering to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But what are we to make of those troublesom conjunctions \u201cthen\u201d and \u201cthough\u201d? They can\u2019t merely be metric placeholders, can they, with no intrinsic significance? \u00a0Don\u2019t believe it. Every syllable in this concise little jewel of a\u00a0work is freighted with meaning. Some of the meaning is so subtle, it would wither under the strong light of scrutiny, much like a seedling which is brought to light in the springtime which, in an unprecedented meteorological event possible only in poetry,\u00a0turns to winter, and then is sunny, and then rainy, and then becomes ashes, or possibly used to be ashes. Delicate seedlings just can\u2019t take that kind of abuse; and so it is with conjunctions in\u00a0the hands of the poet Conry. Exquisite.<\/p>\n

And now the tour de force: \u00a0the final stanza. \u00a0Here we discover at last the full blown expression of the hints and murmuring suggestions sprinkled like so many ashes throughout the rest of the poem. \u00a0The speaker proclaims in triumph:<\/p>\n

\nThanks be to the Father,
\nwho made us like himself.
\nThanks be to his Son,
\nwho saved us by his death.
\nThanks be to the Spirit
\nwho creates the world anew
\nfrom an offering of ashes, an offering to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you see? \u00a0Do you\u00a0see<\/em>? \u00a0It was the ashes all along. Ashes!<\/p>\n


\n***
\nThis post originally ran at the Register last year.
\nPhoto credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a shame that Ash Wednesday comes but once a year. For many of us, that\u2019s the only opportunity we have to experience what many people consider\u00a0the lyrical poet Thomas Conry\u2019s masterwork. Let\u2019s take a closer look. The first lines are something of a ruse, are they not? Listen: We rise again from ashes, from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1533,"featured_media":15688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[491,1029,457,1028,1026,112,1027],"class_list":["post-15686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-ashes","tag-lent","tag-light-heresy","tag-liturgical-music","tag-music","tag-what-me-waste-my-college-education"],"yoast_head":"\nMaking ashes out of you and me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What a shame that Ash Wednesday comes but once a year. 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