Dafydd John Pritchard
Pietà
In the halls of art
and the beautiful recesses
of the world’s churches, pietà is the word
which sets this –
a mother embracing her son
in her old arms –
in the context of everything.
In wood, marble and artificial marble
the coming together
like this, after that death, is a second
which is an age of ages in the still stone.
Neither the tears nor the folds of a garment
can do anything but pour
down to the ground with the force
of gravity of art.
And the Mother caring for her Lord
in the black grief of her old arms
hugs her Son.
‘Pietà’
© copyright translation Mary Burdett-Jones 2025