The name was not a family name. But no-one in your family has That name! they said, as he wrote down, Faithful now at very last, Just what the angel said to him. And true – it was an unusual name; Yet as he scratched upon the page, “His name is John”, he felt aContinue reading “His Name is John (For the Nativity of John the Baptist)”
Category Archives: Devotional
“…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Part Three)
III. “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41) And in the wildly shaking boat, The waves full in their tempest fury, The Lord asleep there in the boat, Calmly sleeping, fearless, sleeping While all about him roared the waves; Waking then he stood and turned Upon theContinue reading ““…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Part Three)”
“…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Part Two)
“…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Fourth Sunday After Pentecost)
I. Exegi monumentum aere perennius. I have raised a monument more permanent than bronze. (Horace, Odes, Book III) Out from the camp – the Philistine camp – came the champion, the fearful champion, height six cubits and a span, armed in mail, helmed with bronze, in a coat of bronze and on his legs twoContinue reading ““…and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Fourth Sunday After Pentecost)”
Alban Yields
(Tomorrow is actually the day in which the Anglican Church remembers St. Alban, Britain’s first martyr. I have written his poem today, however, knowing I will not have time for it tomorrow.) Alban Yields Albanum egregium fæcunda Britannia profert. Fruitful Britain holy Alban yields. (Venantius Fortunatus, quoted by Bede, trans. William Hurst) The stream flowedContinue reading “Alban Yields”
Marginalia
(Written on the only scrap of paper I had available at the time) i. the spaces in the margins serve as ample ground for flowers to bloom from words sewn wildly beyond beds and left to bloom in discarded soil ii. pensive pens make busy work for fingers in distracted moods, the sunlight onContinue reading “Marginalia”
King of the Canopy (Third Sunday After Pentecost)
I. In the forest of trees, They looked for a king Mid the loftiest tree-tops That scraped the canopy, Where the eye soared to see; They looked there for a king, And staggered drunk to see Such height there. But the priest of the trees Turned then to see The lowliest sprig On a tallContinue reading “King of the Canopy (Third Sunday After Pentecost)”
Bed-Time Stories (For J.R.R. Tolkien)
When the day’s dim delusions Implode at sad endings – Sherlock Holmes has fallen at Reichenbach Falls; Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother’s gone; The battle is lost, Mordred has won, The King’s gone to Avalon; Gandalf is dead – Broken heads head for safe pillows, Reciting old stories – How this frog was turnedContinue reading “Bed-Time Stories (For J.R.R. Tolkien)”
Origami Prayer
Open me outwards; Too long I’ve wandered Inside inward caverns In search of the words For textures and fissures And tensions inside. Open me upwards; Let Your sun fill me. Too long I’ve enclosed Myself in my Self, Wounding and licking The wounds of the dark. Open me up to the Surge ofContinue reading “Origami Prayer”
The Better Sacrifice
Out from the ground the blood of Abel the blood of Abel cries: for vengeance and for mercy cries, cries and cries unto the skies, the one whose worthy sacrifice found favour in God’s eyes; And now he lies within the soil, blood soaking into the soil, soaking, soaking, calling out for mercy,Continue reading “The Better Sacrifice”
The Consolations of Writing 