Rejoicing

An Easter Poem

Come laugh with me! Oh laugh!

Come sing with me! Let’s sing!

Singing is too weak so let us dance!

Oh what joyful news we bring!

The tomb is open! Open!

The stone has been rolled away!

Night has ended, the sun has risen!

Our God has won the day!

Ha! Oh how can I not laugh?

Even my weeps of joy seem to sing

The Evil ones danced yesterday

But look! Look! The light now rings!

He lives! He lives! He lives forevermore!

The darkness has fallen away

The day shines new, it shines forever

Oh blessings on this day!

Come run with me! Come Run!

For nothing can contain our joy!

Run to him! Let’s go meet him!

The reason for our joy!

The time of waiting is over!

The night is over. Silence has passed

The world now sings in an endless laughter

What a glorious thing has come to pass!

Death’s blade has been broken

The grave is forever no more

We thought He had fallen. Not so

He reigns forever more!

So let the light overflow this day!

Come! Now all is new

He lives! He’s won! He’s saved us all!

Oh praise the Lord, it is true!

Forever and ever will we remember

These past days shall be forever retold

How he came to save and died to live

Oh to our Lord let us sing an ode!

Amazing Grace! Amazing Grace!

A victory by his blood won!

He lives! He breathes! The darkness flees!

The work is finished! It is done!

Ever a remembrance. Ever a celebration

Ever a reason for great joy!

Whatever trials, whatever temptations

This certainty we shall forever enjoy!

So laugh with me! Come laugh!

Sing with me! Oh sing!

Dance with me. Oh dance with me!

It is the day of rejoicing!

Happy Easter!

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Waiting

A Holy Saturday Poem

Waiting. I am still waiting

Waiting and waiting still

For what exactly? I do not know

But I’ll keep waiting still

Light of lights has fallen

They say darkness will now reign

Somehow the world seems a shadow

And waiting is a silent pain

That aches, that burns, that slumbers not

Long it makes the hours

Yet we must wait. Wait!

Victory will yet be ours

There was a promise he made before he died

But now I cannot remember

Why does it seem important though?

Is Death not forever?

Light of lights. Light of lights

Into the darkness did descend

No. No, it cannot be

This is not the end!

So wait. Wait. Keep waiting still

Waiting is the hardest thing

To keep hoping, to keep believing

In whatever the Lord will bring

When there is naught but silence

Naught. Indeed, nothing

Good is quiet while Evil dances

With victory drunk it sings

It seems the world has ended

Even before it has begun

Whipped, killed, crucified

Oh! They killed God’s son!

But no! No! I’ll keep waiting

Waiting and waiting still

Despair will take all it can

But my hope it never will

So wait, somehow, wait

Another minute, an hour, a day

Wait! Give me strength to wait!

Are the words with which I pray

For darkness cannot vanquish the light

Though, really, it seems we lost

I am freed. I am redeemed

But oh! At what a cost!

Please. Please. Please

Let us wait not in vain

Give us strength for this agony

Near drives us insane

Hope is coming! It is coming!

But I don’t know yet when or how

It’s not the end! I don’t believe it

But victory? How?

Never mind. Time answers all things

My task is simply to wait

Wait for an answer, wait for a moment

Wait for the truth?

I will wait.

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Darkness Falls

A Good Friday Poem

I am nothing. Worthless

Not even worth a thought

Or a tear, or a moment

But that’s all I’ve ever sought

Did I perhaps sense the gulf?

The heartbreak? The isolation?

That though without memory, my heart knew

Something dearly precious had broken?

Leaving a great sorrow, a stain of pain

A black so black it overwhelms the white

That can’t be removed, that can’t be fixed

That just can’t be set right

I can almost see it

That whiteness turned to black

Not only see it but feel it

What’s lost cannot be gotten back

For we’re nothing. Nothing.

A man’s life is but a breath

The wind blows and it passes

And then there is nothing left

So how can this be repaired?

Who would bother? Who would care?

Evil ones even laugh and chuckle

Then mock and hurt with their stares

But before my very eyes

I watch as the black fades away

With a drop of red, too vivid to bear

It turns as light as day

I look up and behold

A sight too terrible to see

My Lord bleeding to his death

To fix the brokenness in me

Drop by drop, pain by pain

What was broken is renewed

Remade, reformed, not just white but bright

Into something we never knew

And I hear a voice say from above

‘Come home! Come home to me!’

Then to my Lord it says alas!

‘For her wrongs I punish thee’

Drop by drop, pain by pain

The blood continues to flow

I fall to my knees, tears fill my eyes

Oh Sorrow. Sorrow!

For only his blood could return to white

That black blacker than night

For a mere breath, for a mere nothing

My Lord hangs there, crucified

His life ebbing away with every drop

Wretchedness in his every breath

Pain – It ought to be mine! – Pain!

Until the moment of his death

His last words are ‘It’s finished!”

And the Enemy laughs in glee

And I find that blackness gone entirely

At long last, I am free

But he is gone. He has paid

His life for a mere nothing, for mine

But it’s no longer worthless, not anymore

His blood now flows in mine

I was broken but now restored

Lost and alone but now found

Even so, the Enemy still declares

That it has won this time round

But a white whiter than white

And brighter than the brightest light

Has now descended into the darkness of hell

Does the Enemy think it’s right?

No, I’ll wait. I’ll wait

I’ll wait and wait some more

Hope is not lost. It’s just beginning

And I shall see the darkness fall

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen