Finally, one arrives at the place

of the skull because there is nowhere

else to go. And there before the face

of bone one pauses in despair.

The culmination of all evil

is displayed before one’s eyes.

Man’s heart conspired with the devil

and cared little for disguise.

Yet if, at the sight of the Cross,

a light is struck on the rough of the brain

and the mind conceives all bar this is vain,

there comes a voice that reassures: Thus

is the seed of tenderness sown

in the cleft of the heart of stone.

“Golgotha” © Andrew Lansdown

“Golgotha” is reprinted from Andrew Lansdown’s book, The Grasshopper Heart (Sydney: Collin/Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1991). “Golgotha” also appears in the Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry, selected by Les Murray (Blackburn: Collins Dove, 1986).