#30SecondBible: Song of Songs

Moments Dripping With Myrrh

By Carol Howard Merritt

With naked longing and urgent desire, The hungry lovers steal. Ravishing where the flock devours the pasture, And the table awaits the feast. Caressing on rock cliffs, Embracing in city streets. Insatiable in gardens, orchards, and vineyards, They purloin fruit sweet with ripeness and moments dripping with Myrrh.

  1. What do you remember about the Song of Songs?
  2. What is a time from your life that was a “moment dripping with myrrh?"

I Join Her Chorus

By Carol Howard Merritt

Her voice rings an octave higher, a rare pitch in this library of men. She forgot the naked shame of Eve. The Beloved belts out the body electric Before we controlled the motion of charged particles with a switch. She sings the beauty of blackness, of women, of sex, Before we have a chance to chain dark flesh, declare femina damned, and scorn erotic desire. So I return to the beloved’s unfettered, womanish voice. And I join her chorus.

  1. How have you seen religion celebrate human sexuality?
  2. What does it mean for you to join the chorus of the Song of Songs?

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