Conjuring Jesus

By Brian Day

Provocative and alluring, Conjuring Jesus presents a disarmingly fresh portrait of the figure of Jesus. In poems disruptive and devotional, controversial and contemplative, it reveals a man moved by a persistent impulse toward sinuous reshaping and a liberating awareness of his own sexuality. {Guernica Editions}

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guernica
• Release date: Jan 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781550714807

Brian Day

Brian Day is the author of Azure and Love Is Not Native to My Blood. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Book preview

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BRIAN DAY

CONJURING JESUS

guernica

toronto – buffalo – chicago – lancaster (u.k.) 2009

Copyright © 2009, by Brian Day and Guernica Editions Inc. All rights reserved.The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

Antonio D’Alfonso, editor Guernica Editions Inc. P.O. Box 117, Station P,Toronto (ON), Canada M5S 2S6 2250 Military Road,Tonawanda, N.Y. 14150-6000 U.S.A.

Distributors: University of Toronto Press Distribution, 5201 Dufferin Street,Toronto (ON), Canada M3H 5T8

Gazelle Book Services,White Cross Mills, High Town, Lancaster LA1 4XS U.K.

Independent Publishers Group, 814 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, Il. 60610 U.S.A.

First edition. Printed in Canada.

Legal Deposit – Fourth Quarter Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008928102 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Day, Brian Conjuring Jesus / Brian Day. (Essential poets series ; 158) Poems. ISBN 978-1-55071-274-2 

9781550714807 epub

9781550714814 mobi

1. Jesus Christ — Poetry. I.Title. II. Series. PS8557.A916C57 2008 C811’.6 C2008-902882-1

Jesus, Son of David

The Conversion of Jesus

Jesus and the Foreign

Spit and Blindness

Jairus’ Daughter

Healed of Haemorrhages

Jesus Seeking Solitude

Jesus, Suicidal

Jesus Considers Amputation

Corruption

Weeds

Open Party

Tax Collectors

Snake of God

The Mother of Jesus

Enemies

The Forgiving Manager

Talents

The Planter

Flower and Flight

Indolence

Children and the Kingdom

Reversals

Good News

Again

Perfume

Better Not to Marry

Jesus,Versatile

Jesus, Praying

The Transfiguration

Lazarus

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

Bread of His Body

The Beloved Disciple

Judas

Pilate’s Wife Dreams of Jesus

Pilate

A Soldier Questions Jesus

The Beloved and Mary at the Cross

Jesus, Forsaken

Corpse

The Angel at the Tomb

After

Peter, Swimming

Thomas

As I Have Loved You

Appearances

Jesus Not Contained in His Book

Biblical References

Acknowledgements

Jesus, Son of David

The gospels begin with the naked

proclamation that Jesus is first the son

of David. And Jesus could hardly claim for a model – or

for the opening line

of his story – a man

with a more scandalous, unseemly past.

David is pacing on the roof of his palace

when he spies, like the liquids of all his dreams,

a woman shimmering with the rituals of her bath.

He watches her pouring of oils to water,

her sleek limbs rising from those tiny

warm waves; sends servants to summon

this beauty to his chamber. He plunges

to the fabulous sin of adultery,

the act that stands in his religion

as the carnal emblem of defection from God.

Years before his stint as a royal voyeur,

David’s desires are stirred by the kingdom’s sweet

beguiling prince. He wears Jonathan’s clothing as a charm

on his skin, and wraps himself in the prince’s scent.

He kisses him in secret when they meet in a