Backward Mutters

Category: poetry

  • A Voice Loudly Cries

    A Voice Loudly Cries

    This sonnet is based on Matthew 2:16-18 which recounts Herod’s murder of the young male children in the region of Bethlehem after he realized he had been outsmarted by the wisemen who had come to pay homage to the King of the Jews. This event is called the Slaughter of…

  • O Dayspring

    O Dayspring

    December 21 is the day in which the Great O Antiphon, O Oriens, is sung. It is also the winter solstice which is the shortest or darkest day in the Northern hemisphere. This sonnet is a reworking of a previous sonnet. Since our morning, we have watched the sunset In…

  • O Radix

    O Radix

    December 19 is the date in which the Great O Antiphons, O Radix is sung on either side of the Magnificat. This is a repost of a previous meditation on O Radix. “O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths,…

  • O Wisdom II

    O Wisdom II

    I am reposting this because today, December 17, is Sapientia. This is a sonnet based upon the Great O Antiphon, O Sapientia which is sung on December 17. The antiphon reads, “O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other mightily,…

  • Unshod, Thy Feet

    Unshod, Thy Feet

    This sonnet follows from this year’s Advent series, Where Are You? It is based on Exodus 3 where Moses comes to Mt Horeb and finds the Lord (or is found by the Lord). I have always been curious about what it is about shoelessness in the presence of holiness. As…