Today is the day when the Anglican Church remembers the great medieval historian Bede of Jarrow, or the Venerable Bede. I found myself inspired by my reading on him today to write two poems about him, one silly, one serious. Here, for good measure, are they both. I. The Venerable Bede, we know, Was ignorant,Continue reading “Poems for Bede”
Author Archives: Matthew Pullar
The Quadrilateral (For John and Charles Wesley)
“That being rooted and grounded – That is, deeply fixed and firmly established, in love. Ye may comprehend – So far as an human mind is capable. What is the breadth of the love of Christ – Embracing all mankind. And length – From everlasting to everlasting. And depth – Not to be fathomed byContinue reading “The Quadrilateral (For John and Charles Wesley)”
Untitled Poem
As dust collects, the moon appears and hovers over playing fields, the grass awash in opal green, the leisure of the dying day. A collar and a tie drop down into a pool of splash-making my not shed from my am, and yet fragments misplaced on the way. And dust collects, head soonContinue reading “Untitled Poem”
The Need For Light
Retinas on waking crave the sun’s warm rays upon their backs. Without the radiance of day, the messages they send us speak of early morning weariness And skin cells cry, small children, at being ripped from bed too soon. They know the signs of night and long for rest until the sun’s day heatContinue reading “The Need For Light”
The Diminishing Twelve (For the Sunday Before Pentecost)
The number diminishes: First twelve, then two, The rest far gone, Consumed into The enemy, the juggernaut. Promises of restoration Dangle awkwardly in the wind. Yet the time will come; it won’t Delay. It surely is soon here. The time will come when From the winds of all directions, Men will come and worship inContinue reading “The Diminishing Twelve (For the Sunday Before Pentecost)”
The Taper, the Tongs, the Devil and Saint Dunstan
(After The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine) The historical St. Dunstan will benefit us if we study his career with an impartial love of right, and hatred of wrong, wheresoever found. But the legendary St. Dunstan? He and such as he will do us no good if, overlooking the grave lesson of self-conquest andContinue reading “The Taper, the Tongs, the Devil and Saint Dunstan”
The Still Advance
Blank spaces yawn where thoughts belong. Vertigo drops heads and lifts them With sudden jolts of indecision. Daytime lags and lengthens, A lazy prairie field of quiet companions; But night welcomes with the arms of a brother. Street lights flicker; Drowsy minds falter and snap to attention. Time, in all its broken glory,Continue reading “The Still Advance”
A Prayer
The day’s excess leaks from recesses Of bones and punctured consciousness; Minds, overflowing, soak up dust, Expunging it at the day’s burst end. If, draining outwards, I should falter, Let these faint words staunch the flow; Let this vapour prayer waft upwards; Let it mix with air and wine As IContinue reading “A Prayer”
Broken Praise (Sixth Sunday of Easter)
On Sundays, I base my poems on the set readings for the day in the Anglican Liturgical calendar. One of today’s readings is Psalm 98, a very joyful psalm and one that can, perhaps, be hard to say with all integrity when not joyful oneself. Here is my approach to the problem. I hope, asContinue reading “Broken Praise (Sixth Sunday of Easter)”
The Soul Garden: a poem in progress
This poem is not necessarily complete but I am trying to be disciplined and regular in posting here, so I am sharing it with you all as it is. The Soul Garden In the day of darkness I rose far too early And went, joints aching, to the garden where All the flowers ofContinue reading “The Soul Garden: a poem in progress”
The Consolations of Writing 