Why did you weep at Lazarus’s grave? (A Poem)
When I go to concerts, I always love hearing from the artists what prompted them to write a song. When I hear the story behind the song, I enjoy the song so much more. I might even start liking it for the first time.
I wrote a poem while I was processing a traumatic memory. While I was writing that poem, the refrain, “why did you weep at Lazarus’s grave?” kept cycling through my mind. Basically, I was writing two poems at the same time. While neither one resolves, I see the poems as a sort of conversation between them. Like each poem took over the writing and started talking to each other. They are connected, but I’m not even sure I understand how. (References the gospel of John, chapter 11)
Why did you weep at Lazarus’s grave?
Why?
You knew you could raise him from the dead
You knew you would
Why did you weep at his grave?
Why did you weep?
You could do all things
Make mountains
Form babies
Heal illness
Defeat death
Why did you weep at a grave?
Why did you wait so long to go,
When a family sent you word
Why did you wait?
On purpose you waited
Why did you wait?
Why did you weep at your friend’s grave
When you could have stopped his death?
Why did you weep?
Why did you tell them to open the tomb
Why did you open the grave?
Why did you raise a man from the dead,
After your own grief?
Why did you cry in front of a crowd?
Why did you answer their cry?
Why did you allow a young man to die,
And bring him back to life?
Why did you weep at the edge of a gave,
Why did you weep?