Reflections

It is profane

Quite insane

All in vain

To think of one

Or look for one

Who could be viewed as Jesus Christ

Who had divine attributes

Intrinsic message to the world

A portrait never contributes

His real portraits are his teachings to the core

He inculcated love and peace that they ignore

Is painting of  “The Last Supper” so interesting and instructive?

That was painted by artist Leonardo Da Vinci

That took not less than seven years

Of his artistic acumen

With all his energies and talents

With toiling searching and torments

He chose an innocent young man

Too gentle, gracious, submissive

Virtuous, handsome and attractive

On his mind sin was ineffective

To be painted as Jesus Christ

Then all the models for painting

Of the eleven apostles were explored

He had to ransack afterwards

Each nook and corner of the earth

The twelfth model, his final one

A hard, cunning and callous face

Profoundly marked by scars of vice,

Deceit, avarice, unfaithfulness

To be painted as Judas Iscariot

A traitor who betrayed his Lord

A swarthy, shabby face was found

With filthy locks and ugly looks

It was a man sentenced to die

Convicted of murder and crime

He had to pose with great patience

Before the artist for six months

But at length he was prone to yell

O Leonardo!

What sort of ideas do you sow?

Who am I? Forgot? Do you know?

I am the person that you chose

As to be posed as Jesus Christ

For Heaven’s sake you let me know

Am I too cursed and degraded

Abased to the lowest of the low???



Although the moral it entails

The effects of right and wrong doing

Tell us blissful or woeful tales

I shall protest at any rate

To make my point reiterate

It is profane

Quite insane

All in vain

To think of one

Or look for one

Who could be seen as Jesus Christ

Immersed in rays of spiritual light

Providing us a great delight

His image is reflected by

The mirrors hanging in our chests

Master of godly attributes --

Could not be sketched

Should not be sketched

Would not be sketched

By any artist of the globe

His only artist is thy Lord

His real painter is my Lord

Of Him we ought to be heedful

And so we must do the needful

Author's Notes/Comments: 

I was motivated to write this poem after reading the real story behind the painting of “The Last Supper” provided by Jochum Valerie.

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Katie Paluch's picture

wow...awesome

Deborah Russell's picture

Interesting Iqbal...thank you for sending. The story is a touching one...considering it is quite a story. It is my understanding that parables, stories and illustrations, in the scriptures, are arranged to teach us exactly what your title suggests, reflections. To motivate us to think. If we use the scriptures as a study for life, we learn that we share the traits of each of the "followers" of Christ. To seek a "perfect" man is quite impossible and this reminds me also of the saying, "never judge a book by its cover." However, we are human, and therefore we are quite flawed and bias and do stereotype and judge and hopefully in the end of our present lives...we have made amends and at least shed a bit of light upon this world. Thank you again for sharing this.

vjochum's picture

Just as beautiful as the first time I read this Iqbal! I'm happy you posted it. Your writing is informative, as well as visually descriped through your heart. You know I love this one!