If you find them worth publishing, you have my permission to do so – as a sort of ‘White Book’ concerning my negotiations with myself – and with God. (Dag Hammarskjöld, in a letter to Leif Belfrage)* And so they sat together, the poet without “a single word of Swedish” at hand, and the translator,Continue reading “In Translation”
Category Archives: Poetry
What we don’t know
It is hard for those who live near a Bank To doubt the security of their money. T.S. Eliot Only those who have felt the cold will remember to close the door. Only those who are fallen or proud will perceive the rule of law. Only those who live far from the bowl will knowContinue reading “What we don’t know”
No Ordinary Sundays
Before you lies my strength and my weakness; preserve the one, heal the other. Before you lies my knowledge and my ignorance; where you have opened to me, receive me as I come in; where you have shut to me, open to me as I knock. Let me remember you, let me understand you, letContinue reading “No Ordinary Sundays”
Uncovered Gems #5: The Danish Psalmist
In the Danish Golden Age of literature and philosophy, there were three significant names that still stand out today: Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and N.F.S. Grundtvig. The non-Danish world has very much heard of the first two but the third is as unknown as it is unpronounceable. And perhaps understandably so. He is ofContinue reading “Uncovered Gems #5: The Danish Psalmist”
Uncovered Gems #3: “The Singer” by Calvin Miller
“How did you manage to make them cherish all this nothingness?” he asked the World Hater. “I simply make them feel embarrassed to admit that they are incomplete. A man would rather close his eyes than see himself as your Father-Spirit does. I teach them to exalt their emptiness and thus preserve the dignity ofContinue reading “Uncovered Gems #3: “The Singer” by Calvin Miller”
Uncovered Gems #2: Ruth Pitter
Last week I posted a poem in honour of Christina Rossetti, who I declared one of the Anglican church’s greatest literary exports. Today, in this week’s uncovering, I want to share with you the work of a widely forgotten gem, the Anglican poet Ruth Pitter. I have my friend Nathanael to thank for this discovery,Continue reading “Uncovered Gems #2: Ruth Pitter”
The Language of Flowers: For Christina Rossetti
As an Anglican myself, I have to say that our literary exports don’t get much better than Christina Rossetti. Granted, she’s in formidable company, alongside George Herbert, John Donne, William Cowper, C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot and R.S. Thomas (why did you need to have the middle initial S in order to be a successful 20th-centuryContinue reading “The Language of Flowers: For Christina Rossetti”
After Rosemary Dobson
Worn, I long for the simplicity of desert, for Abba Poemen’s knee to rest my sleeping head. I call to heart the peace of silent communion, of neighbour and myself in essential speech. But mind is Baroque in its impulse. Chiaroscuro in substance, it curlicues toward ceilings, rhizomatic and elaborate, frantic in its downward andContinue reading “After Rosemary Dobson”
Under Construction (Glenroy Lent: Maundy Thursday)
All night we pour out bitumen; by day we mark out new lanes, construct the avenues of better days, the now-not-yet of our ways. We close our eyes before the promised land; passed over, we pass over the times when paddock became mill became smelter. Not done with the smelter yet, and yet when theContinue reading “Under Construction (Glenroy Lent: Maundy Thursday)”
Pink Cotton Promise (Glenroy Lent #10)
Even in new homes, morning has old narratives formed by other mornings, by schedules, by delays. So I approach the day as though it’s been before, as though its parameters are fixed, its possibilities known. Adam beheld the first sunrise, called himself inventor. I almost ignore the miracle, too entangled in strands of ground toContinue reading “Pink Cotton Promise (Glenroy Lent #10)”
The Consolations of Writing 