His blood fell
Like the first drops of paint
On the white canvas.
Witness witnessing,
Because he had seen
First jewel of the crown.
And life kept dripping, mixing, creating
Of colours and shapes,
Of light and of shade,
Beauty.
And what you and I do, today, and tomorrow –
We paint;
Because we have seen,
Witnesses witnessing,
Living or dying, we paint
New jewels of the crown.
This poem by Ana Teresa (Carranza) Perrem was first published in the May 2008 Issue of Living Bulwark.
Top image credit: Oil painting of the stoning of St. Stephen – the first Christian martyr (see Acts 7:54-8:1), from the Wellcome Collection gallery in the UK. This artwork is associated with Lorenzo Sabbatini (1530) as the composition is similar to that of one of his frescoes in the Cappella Paolina of the Vatican, painted in 1573-1576. Previously attributed more generally to an artist in the circle of Orazio Sammacchini, Source of image at Wikimedia Commons. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Ana Teresa (Carranza) Perrem is originally from Jesed Community in Monterrey, Mexico. She and her husband Dominic Perrem are members of the Community of Nazareth in Dublin, Ireland.