A poem from MAGDALENE & THE MERMAIDS by ELIZABETH KATE SWITAJ

JOHN BLOOMBERG-RISSMAN Reviews

“Magdalene’s Prayer” in Magdalene & the Mermaids by Elizabeth Kate Switaj

(Paper Kite Press, Kingston, PA, 2009)

Magdalene’s Prayer


dye my hair red with wine
dye my robe red with wine
dye my flesh red with wine
                      & say I sinned of it

dye my lips red with wine
dye my name red with wine
dye my nails red with wine
                       & forget these hands lifted
                       your legs   to let you breathe
                   as you died   nails through your wrists

*

The biblical story of Mary Magdalene is well known. In short, as the http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09761a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia puts it,

Mary Magdalen was so called either from Magdala near Tiberias, on the west shore of Gallilee, or possibly from a Talmudic expression meaning "curling women’s hair," which the Talmud explains as of an adulteress.

In the New Testament she is mentioned among the women who accompanied Christ and ministered to Him (Luke 8:2-3), where it is also said that seven devils had been cast out of her (Mark 16:9). She is next named as standing at the foot of the cross (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56; John 29.25: Luke 23:49). She saw Christ laid in the tomb, and she was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection.

            The Greek Fathers, as a whole, distinguish the three persons:

·         the "sinner" of Luke 7:36-50

·         the sister of Martha and Lazarus, Luke 10:38-42 and John 11; and

·         Mary Magdalen.

While scholars have concluded that it is impossible to identify these three with any certainty, I think it is safe to say that “history” has identified her as the sinner, as well as the woman at the foot of the cross and the first recorded witness of the Resurrection.

I think we can go farther than that and say that recent scholarship has also identified her as Christ’s primary disciple, ahead of the apostles. See Jane Schaberg, The Resurrection of Mary Magalene, in particular, tho Schaberg is not alone in her good opinion. According to Wikipedia, “In Hebrew מגדל Migdal means “tower”, “fortress”; in Aramaic, “Magdala” means “tower” or “elevated, great, magnificent”.” The epithets describing her hometown seem to have rubbed off on her. After all, she is a saint.

It is important to keep all this in mind when reading “Magdalene’s Prayer”, because it’s what’s not said as well as the background that makes this poem as powerful as it is.

The first question I ask is: to whom is this prayer directed? Not Christ, though he might be the “you” in the second stanza. Why not?

dye my hair red with wine
dye my robe red with wine
dye my flesh red with wine
                      & say I sinned of it

could not be directed at Christ because he is the one who protected her from the “those who would cast the first stone”, etc.

A number of possible targets come to mind. The first is the culture, which used her as a whore then condemned her for it. This kind of cultural hypocrisy is still with us. If we listen closely to her prayer, we can hear her say that her hair, robe, flesh, etc were dyed by those who condemn her as a sinner. There is a second possibility that comes to mind, though I can cite nothing in the text so far that leads me to it. The speaker isn’t really Mary Magdalene; it’s a woman who has adopted her persona. A woman/lover scorned. Her situation is parallel to that of the Magdalene. At least as she sees it.

dye my lips red with wine
dye my name red with wine
dye my nails red with wine
                       & forget these hands lifted
                       your legs   to let you breathe
                   as you died   nails through your wrists

In this second stanza, it is again clear that she is not praying to Christ or His father. Christ clearly never forgot her services, or their relationship; had he, she wouldn’t have been the first to see him after His Resurrection.

Second, the last three lines depart from all Biblical versions. Tho she was at the foot of the cross, she did not come to Christ’s physical aid however much she may have wanted to (as if the Romans would have let her!). So, again, to whom is she praying?

This is why I think she may be praying to a lover who has spurned her: “After all I’ve done for you, you bastard … to dump me … then to talk about me like this!”

Of course, this last is just speculation. Well, not just, I have to have some way to figure out who the “you” is, and why the deviation from the story we know.

As I write these words another possibility comes to mind: she is, at least in part, writing to Christ, or to his male disciples, and the Church fathers, etc etc (the patriarchy1) because He/they never made it known that she was his chief disciple, and that it truly was through her efforts that Christianity was able to continue after His death. Her role, her importance, had been suppressed. In this case I can keep my spurned lover conceit, and just expand the “you” from one man to all men.

This is one of the things I love about reading poetry. Like the universe, everything just expands and expands …

*****

[Editor’s Note: This is one of 50 reviews written, mas o menos, in 50 days.  While each engagement can be read on a stand-alone basis, there’s a layer of watching the critic’s subjectivity arise in a fulsome manner if the reviews are read one after another.  So if you have insomnia and/or are curious about this layer, I suggest you read the 50 reviews right after each other and, to facilitate this type of reading, I will put at the bottom of each review a “NEXT” button that will take you to the next review.  To wit: NEXT.  And an Afterword on John's reading process is also available HERE!]

John Bloomberg-Rissman is somewhere towards middle of In the House of the Hangman, the third section of his maybe life project called Zeitgeist Spam (picture Hannah Hoch painting over the Sistine Chapel) The first two volumes have been published: No Sounds of My Own Making, and Flux, Clot & Froth. In addition to his Zeitgeist Spam project, he has edited or co-edited two anthologies, 1000 Views of 'Girl Singing' and The Chained Hay(na)ku Project, and is at work on a third, which he is editing with Jerome Rothenberg. He is also deep into two important collaborations, one with Richard Lopez, one with Anne Gorrick. By important he means "important to him". Anyone else want to collaborate? He blogs at Zeitgeist Spam.