In Winter’s garden bed I saw you,plucky yet tentative,white bursting but drooping at the stem,head bowed in humble prayer,hopeful of the day to come,whispering its name.
Category Archives: Devotional
We still have the river
We still have the river, after it all,running like a backbone though our home,flowing sure when all else is gone,we still have the river, still have the air.We still have each other, at the end of the day,grating on nerves, tired and numb,still have our hearts beating together,still have our days under the sun.And whenContinue reading “We still have the river”
After Curfew
Bins at the curb, I pausein a night of deep quietand catchthe thought that no-one else is here.Sleepy suburban street rarely parties;nights are seldom wild around here.Yet silence catches with surprise:no-one walking home from shops,no night-time joggers,no cars coming home.No feet sharing this curb with mine.And this weekly domestic act becomesa moment of strange resistance,aContinue reading “After Curfew”
Anno Domini: For the year 2020
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation… 2 Corinthians 6:2 We did not choose you, would not repeat you.Grief has built upon grief: ash and smoke first,Then this, a time we can only call”Unprecedented”. And how it goes on,How quickly “normal” becomes a wordStripped of all meaning. How quicklyContinue reading “Anno Domini: For the year 2020”
God in all this: For St Ignatius of Loyola
“Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created.”St Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises Even this, Ignatius?When all are in retreat in their homes,when consoling and desolating spiritsvy for the attention of every moment,when truth is in short supplyand what truth we have isContinue reading “God in all this: For St Ignatius of Loyola”
As yet untitled
As the changing but constant expectationsof a year that no-one chose keep knockingand the day of the Lord lingers and tarries from my watch-post,I longto take this one quietly, on the bench,with Saul and the others who couldn’t run the race.No shame in being worn out whenthe swift themselves are flaggingand the flagsare all atContinue reading “As yet untitled”
Till We Have Our Faces Back
First you will learn about smiles,how much you smile,what’s contained in a smile,what’s implied in the different degrees of smile:in a curl of the lip at a funny thought,in the mouth’s outstretched cornersto greet the close acquaintance, in the sardonic phrase,the empathic moment.All these things you will learnwhen they cannot be seen.And eyes. You willContinue reading “Till We Have Our Faces Back”
Birthday Gifts
My eldest gathers an ecosystem of treasureslike a store of botanical specimens for the apocalypse, ora nest for lockdown hibernation.And I, wandering with him and his brothers,viewing the world like they do, at ground level or just above,begin to spy jungles, mini-forests, whole worlds,grooves and knots, stalactites of sap,and breathe Thankyou with the air thatContinue reading “Birthday Gifts”
Tidings
Listen: the almond has something white to announce…(Chris Wallace-Crabbe)Tiny white heralds like angels burstfrom coronawinter barren branch,whispering, echoing, promising.Listen:The time is slow but gives glimpses.The promise is faintbut continual.The season’s sure that waits in the whispers.Truer than winter, truer than spring:the eternal soon.
Quarantine Morning
What the day brings is anyone’s guess:Students in masks, temperature checks at the front gate,But what else? Prognoses and rules change by the minute;What yesterday was harmless today may destroy.Brave new day that has such features in it.And so, the day lying openLike a box, like a question,I rejoice to see vermilion horizonThat smiles onContinue reading “Quarantine Morning”
The Consolations of Writing 