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”
Category Archives: Devotional
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”
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”
Good Friday: Via Dolorosa
I In the garden you Sweat in drops of blood, you who Made the earth blossom II And then a kiss Betrays you with the violence Of a close friend’s sword III By dark, the council Meets and seals your fate. You let Your own reject you IV While, by firelight, Your close friend lies,Continue reading “Good Friday: Via Dolorosa”
All the Books of the World (Lent Poems 40)
And all the books in all the worlds Could not contain his words, And all the paper of all the trees and All the ink of every pen Could never capture all the Word, And all the waters of all earth’s Imaginable seas could not Stretch far enough to show us how Far and deepContinue reading “All the Books of the World (Lent Poems 40)”
Stretching, Bending (Lent Poems 39)
When I was a child, you said, I would dress Myself, and then go where I wanted to go. But when an old man, they would dress me in clothes Of torment, stretch my arms out to take me Where I’d not want to go, And in the grains of the sand That we walkedContinue reading “Stretching, Bending (Lent Poems 39)”
The Firmness of Rock (Lent Poems 38)
I. All night we’d been fishing Though the sea was dry and our nets empty, And all our local knowledge told us only That we were fresh out of luck. Then the stranger came and bolstered his way Into our ears: Put your nets, he said, on the other side. Raving mad, or foolish, hisContinue reading “The Firmness of Rock (Lent Poems 38)”
The Upper Room (Lent Poems 37)
Now somehow still hiding, we gather, Afraid of the words that the women have said, yet Hearts swarming with all the things we have heard, And into the padlocks and chains of the room, Walks now a stranger who knows all our names And sparks in us a dangerous, snow-melting hope, Like the sound ofContinue reading “The Upper Room (Lent Poems 37)”
Apostoloi (Lent Poems 36)
Mary, don’t hold me. I cannot yet stay. Quickly, go tell them; I prepare now the way For you to the Father, Your father and mine. Go tell all the brothers. It soon will be time For me then to send them As I now send you. Mary, go tell them. Will they believe you?
The Gardener (Lent Poems 35)
Why do you cry? the strangers asked, As if it were unclear, the tomb gaping wide While beasts and marauders Took Him who-knows-where! And my eyes like rivers flooded grief While my voice strained into words: Please, they have taken away my Lord; Another choke. I do not know where. Then behind me, a newContinue reading “The Gardener (Lent Poems 35)”
The Consolations of Writing 