Thanks, Cheryl and Stella and Gabriella.
Stella, glad you enjoyed the poem (title or no title)!
Cheryl, it may be that some of the tempest over "Christ" is not strictly poetics. If so, so be it. (He would not have minded, a lightningrod, never shied from controversy, made peeps uneasy then, makes us uneasy now, right?) All part of the discussion.
Re title, Gabriella, if you think it's a more inviting title without "Christ", that means something to me. I thought the opposite. The main factor I am considering is that the poem is in 2nd person, addressed to Christ, so "Christ's Favorite Chair" is a bit out of voice compared to "Your favorite chair -- so I'm weighing that problem against watering down the strikingness of the title.
You have probably noticed some pretty dull titles on my stuff over the months because I tend to use the title that best suits the poem rather than best gooses the audience. If I change to "Your favorite chair," it will be another instance of that, I'm afraid.
Thanks all, Tom

Ah man, I like the title. Keep it.

He would not have minded, a lightningrod, never shied from controversy, made peeps uneasy then, makes us uneasy now, right?

One thing I am sure of is the above.  ^^^  And by the same token, I don't think we have the slightest idea how God/Jesus would react to certain things.  We ascribe our feelings and thoughts to him.  And I bet that doesn't bother him either.  lol

So glad to see this poem receiving such awesome responses.  Deserves it.

cheryl   

Thanks, James. It's still there.

Cheryl, your comment make me think of how the old Greek writers were always placing their gods in various situations in their poems etc. to play their role as characters - no writer considered the final word, more scriptural than the others. So when you look up the myths, there are all different versions.--Tom

Yeah, I think we have this innate drive to explain things, or understand them, not always realizing there's much more to the picture than our minds.  And then, of all things, we take our made up explanations and hurt people with them.  Downright ignorant, if you ask me.

Something that's always impressed me about the Bible is that there's scientific proof it's written over a huge span of time by many different writers, yet the big picture is always the same, no matter what time or what writer.

cheryl

Wonder if its stylistic diversity helped inspire Moby Dick. Some of those technical chapters are like sections of Leviticus, Exodus, Numbers. Chapter 1 "Loomings" a creation story of sorts...?

just for the sake of trivia

 AD - or anno domini is Latin I think for 'In the Year of Our Lord' So using that system everything before his birth is BC and everything after is one o' his years.
Of course we do use bce and ce now - so that problem is mute!

Christ's Divan is a great title, Silent, I agree! Too funny for this poem, but if you don't use it...sue me when I do.

Thank you, Lavonne. Seems weird that one is Latin and one is Anglo-Saxon (is it really just "Before Christ"?). I wonder how the Italians do it. (Cheryl, no dirty joke here, please.) Tom

Strange, I know, but true.

Silent, Turkish!
Main Entry: di·van 
Etymology: Turkish, from Persian dīvān account book
Date: 1586
1 a : the privy council of the Ottoman Empire b : council
2 : a council chamber
3 : a large couch usually without back or arms often designed for use as a bed
4 : a collection of poems in Persian or Arabic usually by one author

Pete Popoff hands-on healer
seated next to Ed McMahon
does not enjoy that famous couch
but only Christ's divan.

Ian Paisley righteous pastor
who enjoys his black and tan
will take a stool in any pub
but only Christ's divan.

Bill Simmons pious Wizard
of the modern Ku Klux Klan
set wooden cross upon his back
but only Christ's divan.

I really like this one, Tom.  Up it goes.

Rick

Bless you, Rick! It's truly been fun chatting with everyone about Christ, but I also did have hopes for the poem itself. Tom

lol 

two thumbs up, Tom.