Holy Week marked off
from other weeks. Holy
Week when William Blake
returns to wail again down

owned streets,
owned parks,
owned river banks.

Holy Week when Blake sings
over the rattle of chains
forged in the mind; laughs
at the best excuses of the
“wise guardians of the poor.”

On Holy Week–marked off
to remember false
arrest; false imprisonment;
to remember courts, execution–
Blake comes back wailing

at crumbling concrete;
at muddy pits where
high-rises are seeded;

moans again at
sidewalks owned;
parks owned;
underpasses owned–
what ever will change?–

mourns the chains
forged in the mind;
chains forged in money.

Blake wails at the wise
guardians again;

morns the incarcerated,
the executed

who will rise
and die again
in the streets,

and again. Blake,
in Holy Week,
returns again to
prophesy in
the streets owned

by the guardians.
Kept from the poor.

Owned. Controlled.
Chartered.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Rev. Dr. David Breeden

Senior Minister at First Unitarian Society, Minneapolis, MN

Rev. David Breeden, PhD, began his service as Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis in August 2013.He holds an MFA degree from The Iowa Writers' Workshop, a PhD from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Master of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School.Rev. David serves on the board of the American Humanist Association Center for Education and is adjunct faculty at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary.

David Breeden earned an MFA degree from The Iowa Writers' Workshop, a PhD from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Master of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School. He has published several books of poetry, translations, and essays. His blog and sermons can be found at www.FirstUnitarian.org

Latest posts by Rev. Dr. David Breeden (see all)

• The Crooked Timber of Ourselves - May 1, 2020
• Justice, Elections, and Whiteness - November 6, 2014
• Conscience and Choosing the Hill to Die On - October 30, 2014