And You can reign, though nailed to a tree, A truth my mind cannot as yet contain, Defying my small child’s concept of “reign”, A word that conjures up the king in me: King of the hills, imagination’s sea; The waves cow-tow, the soil receives my train, My dreams subduing everywhere I deign To stretchContinue reading “Clouds and Crowns No.3”
Category Archives: Devotional
Ascension Day
Well, today is Ascension Day and so this marks the very last poem for my Swelling Year project. When I first set myself the task of writing a poem for every day of the liturgical calendar, it seemed to both me and to others to be biting off substantially more than I could chew. Well,Continue reading “Ascension Day”
Clouds and Crowns No.2
The promise of green pastures, quiet streams Beckons me, Your shepherd’s hand not far; And so I wander, safe wherever You are, Your sun delighting with its kindly beams, The radiance of Your bright fire; it gleams And glistens, heaven’s welcome door ajar, Sunset splitting sky, a perfect scar. And how it is that YouContinue reading “Clouds and Crowns No.2”
Power Perfected in Weakness (After William Cowper’s “Light Shining Out of Darkness”)
Perhaps the most influential poem that William Cowper wrote was this hymn, “Light Shining Out of Darkness”, which contributed the phrase “God moves in a mysterious way” to the English language. The poem has a very simple, consistent rhythm and rhyme to it not found commonly in poetry today, but it also contains some ofContinue reading “Power Perfected in Weakness (After William Cowper’s “Light Shining Out of Darkness”)”
12 Poets #2: William Cowper
Christian literature has few stories as troubling as that of William Cowper, the eighteenth-century poet and close friend of John Newton of “Amazing Grace” fame. A long-term depression sufferer who attempted suicide multiple times and died in despair, his is hardly an uplifting story. Yet it produced some of the most beautiful – and, often, comforting –Continue reading “12 Poets #2: William Cowper”
Parousia
In the juvescence of the year Came Christ the tiger (T.S. Eliot, “Gerontion”) Still He bursts into our courts Where our Pharisee-hearts change coins for doves And the tables we man to show who’s in charge Are upturned by His rage. Still HeContinue reading “Parousia”
Quatrain (V)
And so it seems to me that I Might rest now underneath Your sky, Sunset like redeeming blood, The rainbow-aftermath of flood.
He that made the ear (After George Herbert’s “Longing”)
My last George Herbert-inspired poem is a bit different to the other three. This time I have decided to use just two lines from his poem, “Longing”, as the stimulus for my own poem: Lord heare! Shall he that made the ear Continue reading “He that made the ear (After George Herbert’s “Longing”)”
Quatrain (IV)
More generous than all my dreams could make You, You overflow when I am most dry. When my heart proves me false, You prove most true, My failure the question, Your love the reply.
Quatrain (III)
Without ground beneath feet I am stumbling, Without bearings I’m caught out of place. But to You in this vacuum and rumbling I can turn, for You shape the dark space.
The Consolations of Writing 