If he truly was the young man who fled naked when they seized him by his linen garment while following the one captured in the garden, do we then, perhaps, see in this a truth that fits the shy evangelist well? Does it not match well one whose face evades us, who flees when weContinue reading “The Fleeing Evangelist (For the Feast of Saint Mark)”
Author Archives: Matthew Pullar
First World Problems: Ten Miniatures for Anzac Day
I. Cobblestones shine from day-long downpour; public holiday takes dreamy footsteps through mid-week tension. II. The sun too shy to rise this morning, yet rises late as rain from the day slowly subsides. At its going and rising, remember… III. Too early and cold this morning; the Dawn Service dropped into my conscience and satContinue reading “First World Problems: Ten Miniatures for Anzac Day”
The Swelling Year
Pregnant with its own hopeful future, Bursting with change and the newness of experience Amidst each turn’s cycling familiarity, The year stands: A heaving monument to grace Recognised at each twist and transition, Offerings of comfort opening from The baton-changes of seasons Known all too well, The greetings of those flowers We met the lastContinue reading “The Swelling Year”
The Last Sermon (For Archbishop Oscar Romero)
The Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, died performing Mass on March 24, 1980, the day after preaching a provocative final sermon (text available here) exposing the state violence in El Salvador at the time. He is remembered in the Anglican Church calendar today and so is the subject of today’s poem. The Last SermonContinue reading “The Last Sermon (For Archbishop Oscar Romero)”
St. George and the Sifting (For the Feast of St George, Martyr)
Who does not think of St. George as a quasi-impossible personage slaying a dragon and rescuing a princess? And by all means let us so picture him, only turning the wild legend into a parable of truth…Fabrications, blunders, even lies, frequently contain some grain of truth: and though life at the longest cannot be longContinue reading “St. George and the Sifting (For the Feast of St George, Martyr)”
Ontology (For Anselm of Canterbury, d. 21 April 1109)
If our minds, Flawed and finite as they are, Can find thought-bulbs and clues of You Who must, we know, be greater than The total sum of all our best, Our dimmest thoughts, Our smallest glimpse Of You must shine, Faintly, weakly, unto You In all Your fullness, all Your being, all that our mindsContinue reading “Ontology (For Anselm of Canterbury, d. 21 April 1109)”
Second Sunday of Easter: Firstborn
The dust – (You remember the dust, how it gathered your bones and your flesh, baked deep in its womb) The dust cannot hold him; he shapes it and makes it anew: it soaks up his blood, bursts out fresh in new blossoms and fields bright in green… The tree – (You remember two treesContinue reading “Second Sunday of Easter: Firstborn”
The Feast
And dreaming I saw that truth was a feast Laid out in the desert of starved reason and mind, Where wanderers weary could lay down to rest And fill up their souls on all they could find, An oasis where lay the richest of meals Where all that was mystery or sadness or painContinue reading “The Feast”
God of the Quake and the Calm
Today commemmorates the death, in 1878, of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand. He was, from what I have read, a wise and godly man who did his best to build up a healthy church in New Zealand, and resisted the land-grabbing and violence that pervaded British colonisation at the time.Continue reading “God of the Quake and the Calm”
Easter Tuesday: The Stone
The stone, which once sat, In the dingiest corner, The home for all refuse, All dust and all junk, The stone, once rejected By builders who saw it As useless, untidy, Awkward and poor, That stone and its brothers – That ramshackle quarry Of pebbles and off-cuts, The debris of ruins – Now stand asContinue reading “Easter Tuesday: The Stone”
The Consolations of Writing 