How many days to Calvary?
I asked the rich man’s child.
Depends on how you’re travelling;
Are you dying or exiled
Or seeking sweet contentedness?
And then the rich man smiled.
How many miles to Calvary
With a burden on my back?
It’s all the same, the rich man sighed.
The peddler with his pack
And the sultan with his majesty
See both one zodiac.
How many lies from Calvary
Have you heard them say?
I hear no lies, poor man; I hear
No lies come from that way,
For truth like this fantastic sun
Shines the livelong day.
How many die at Calvary
Like we died once before?
Seven die tomorrow there,
The next day, seven more.
And why, dear boy, do they die?
It’s for they broke the law.
How many laws at Calvary
Were passed for you and me?
Many laws, for here and there
They plant a dogwood tree;
And if there were no life on earth
Morbid would it be.
…
They’ll kill you there at Calvary;
They’ll kill us all there soon.
One dies in the morning breeze,
Another’s gone at noon.
We fall away, each night, each day,
We go with sun and moon.
Arthur L Wood is a poet from Hampshire in England. After studying drama at the University of Winchester he decided to focus on writing poetry. He now uploads recordings of the classics alongside original work to YouTube and maintains a presence across social media platforms. In 2020 Arthur self-published his first collection, Poems for Susan. His aim is to breathe life into our rich literary heritage, and to add to the tradition through his own writing.
