The accessibility of poetry is brevity.
The beauty of poetry is language.
The content of poetry is depth.
The ABCs of poetry makes it quotable.
The persona poems in Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, a Poetic Meditation (Wipf and Stock Publishers, Resources) can be used as a supplement in a lesson, or a Bible study all by itself, depending on how deep you want to go.
Let's do a short exegesis on a key element in "Eve's Lament" that is not fleshed out in the scriptures, Genesis 4:1-15. I added details about burial rites of Hebrews based on research from Jewish scholars.
We see in the Old Testament that burial was very important to the Israelites. It was a dishonor to allow the body left for animals and birds to eat. (Deuteronomy 28:26) Abraham bought a cave for a family tomb. (Genesis 23) There are many references to family burial caves, like family crypts today. (Genesis 25:8; I Kings 11:23) What I learned through research was that shelves were carved in three walls of the cave for additional family members.
A Rabbinical legend says a raven showed Adam and Eve to bury their dead by pecking at a spot where it had buried another raven.
In my research I relied on the Mishnah, a written collection of the oral Torah. Bodies were buried in clothes, but not in a coffin. If a victim died an unnatural death, such as how Abel was murdered, he was buried in his bloodied clothes with strips of white shroud over them, so all the body is interred. In talmudic times, graves were watched for three days to make sure the person was really dead.
Mourners tore their garments, lamenting the deceased. They spread dirt from the holy land on the deceased person's head and feet. As the mourners leave, they said, "Remember, we are dust."
Now image what Eve must have felt at the death of her second-born son. This was the first death. The first burial. In addition, Eve was now not only separated from God, banished from the Garden, but her firstborn son was separated and banished from their family. Oh, how painful this must have been for Eve.
"Eve's Lament" is the first of 32 poems in Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, a Poetic Meditation (Wipf and Stock Publishers, Resources).
Clawing my flesh, pouring salt in my wounds,
my anguished cries rival the howling wolves
I guard my son's bloody body against.
My pain is greater than when I birthed Able.
Adam implores me, "Come away
from the cave the raven showed us for burial."
Yet, I cannot. I cannot forsake my firstborn.
My soul laments, "This is my fault. Sin of my sin."
I should have cut down the Tree of Knowledge,
hewed the Knowing, burned the Evil,
instead of eating the pomegranate.
I rent the bear skin my strong ruddy son Cain made.
My tears soak Abel's wooly fleeced pouch.
Adam demands, "Come away! What's done is done."
"How can I come home when our son Cain is banished,
Cursed, a marked man, wandering the earth as a lost sheep?"
"Do not ever speak his name again!" Then more tenderly,
"Come away. Let our son's soul reunite with God."
I toss dirt on my son's feet.
Dust to dust.
Touch ashes from three night-watches on his head.
Ashes to ashes.
Light a torch outside the cave
with shelves hewed out for Adam and me
when we face the final death.
I kiss my fingers, touch the cold stone, linger.
"Come away," my husband pleads. "Let me embrace
you against my ribs. Let us create another son,
Bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh.
Come away."
