Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Detail of nave mosaic at the west end depicting Theodoric's Palace.

THE INEXPLICABLE HANDS OF RAVENNA

Only the hands remain,
open palms in prayer,
ghost hands visible
on Corinthian pillars.
As if shimmering, ornate
fringed curtains are knotted
elegantly where figures,
now invisible, filled archways.
Light from light,
uncreated in its source,
glows in these mosaics,
gold tesserae of glass
incarnating light
for a vast house of prayer,
for the gates of heaven.
Sometimes holy apostles
were depicted, each
extending upheld hands
before the risen Christ.
The later onlookers
mistook these gestures
as showing sudden surprise.
Today even trained critics
who dismiss that view
have forgotten prayer
is a surprise in itself
that encounters us.
These tell-tale hands
with palms outward
remind us in worship
the body is not lost
but taken up into light.

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy.

THE TOMB

Raised as a monument
to Rome's "augusta"
in the West, the mausoleum
housed Galla Placidia,
buried sitting on a throne.
In later centuries
a careless spark ignited
all that had remained of her,
a sign how time and empire,
considered everlasting, pass.

One lunette they richly
decorated with gold tesserae
showed the leaping deer
that longed for living water,
while entangled in encircling
vines and classical acanthus.
At the apex of the dome,
lifted by the four apocalyptic creatures,
a golden cross is floating
in a swirling sea of stars,
like sailors' lights upon
the rising rush of Adriatic waves,
as life eternally contends with death.

Ceiling mosaic of Arian Baptistry, Ravenna, Italy.

THE ARIAN BAPTISTRY

The Arians who conquered
built their baptistry
to be a lighthouse of beliefs
about the venerated Christ.

John, who poured the water,
puts his hand directly
on the all too human
beardless youth, naked
in the Jordan flood,
whose sex is amply visible
to emphasize this is just
a son of man, while a hovering
dove cascades the light of grace
in pinpoint bits of gold,
like droplets from a cloud
that carries our unknowing.

The only hint of the divine
is a regal throne that bears
a solitary jeweled cross,
alone in majesty and awe,
while the old man Jordan
looks upon this latest revelation
and the river fills the Dead Sea basin.

MORE FROM ROYAL RHODES

POETRY

LEVIATHAN | CHURCH VISIT | SAINT FRANCIS AND THE WOLF | DEATH ON A GRECIAN URN

GODLY CITIZENS, UNHOLY POLITICS:  RETRIEVING SOME FORGOTTEN VOICES

The Montréal Review, November 2021

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