Go Away -a disciples cry (2026)

Once upon a time, a king came to tell stories

Stories of good neighbors and farmers and birds

Stories of crops and pearls and merchants 

Words upon words echo in my ears of the stories he told

Stories of David and their Father’s Kingdom coming

But first he said, he must go away.

Oh how death’s stench is near me, I can’t wash it off. 

“Unless He washes me, I can have no part in Him”.  

“Apart from Him, I can do nothing”

Those words, those words haunting me, they’re taunting me

It’s been mere hours, with Lazarus had it been four long and bitter days 

Will it linger?

Death is a foe that is not familiar with defeat, does he remember?

The words He spoke? 

“Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 

Their haunting me, their taunting me, the sweetness has gone so bitter.

The words you spoke? 

Remember

I remember. 

The words You spoke, nay, You yelled. “Lazarus, Come Forth!”

Was death powerless against Your stories, against Your words? 

You said so many times that I had to have faith like a child, small like a mustard seed,

those words..

And you said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with,

and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” 

Baptized in blood, “It is finished”, is Your distress relieved? 

But, you said,

You said, You would never leave me nor forsake me, You said, You said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

(Your Father) I remember Your baptism in the Jordan, and then more words, 

“This is my son, in whom I am well pleased”

Your Father, you said, to pray our father

Hallowed be thy name… thy kingdom …

You cried my Lord, You said, “Why have you forsaken Me?” 

Our Father, Your Father.

My Lord, where else can I go? 

You alone have the words of

Of Eternal Life

You wept 

You wept and then You yelled,

“Come Forth, Come Forth”

Come forth for the nations 

Come forth for Your people

Come forth for Your friends

Come forth for yourself

Come forth 

For me

Once upon a time a king came to tell stories

Stories of good neighbors and farmers and birds

Stories of crops and pearls and merchants 

Words upon words echo in my ears of the stories he told

Stories of David and their Father’s Kingdom coming

But first he said, he must go

Away.

A Note from Damon: The context for this poem is that I was asked to write and perform a poem for the Good Friday service at my local church. I love to write and this was a gift and an honor. 

I started praying about what point of view to write the poem from, you see you could write it from so many different perspectives: death’s point of view, or Jesus’, or the Father’s or his mom’s and you can imagine how different each of those poems might be. 

What I landed on was to try and write a poem that embodied one of His’ disciples thoughts and emotions on Friday. I thought of the fear, the doubt, the confusion, and ultimately the hopelessness they might have been feeling, yet Jesus was just with them and His words probably were still echoing in their ears. And I imagined that those words, His words just as they are in today’s age, would be what they would be clinging to even through a veil of doubt and confusion. 

The poem starts and ends zoomed out seeing this as a story and then in the main body of the poem zooms deeply into the mind and emotions of a disciple, we are left to imagine how they felt as their Lord, their friend, their savior had ‘gone away’...