…and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2) What a father did once when an apple looked sweet sent tremors shaking through the earth, breaking roots, severing limbs, Continue reading “Family Tree”
Category Archives: Poetry
From Ashes: No glitch
No glitch in the creation plan and yet my mind skips and repeats over old tracks as though, as though in early days a scratch a fleck of dust crept in, crept in, upset the balance of it all. With every beat the tension in these ancient grooves – this wax – threatens now toContinue reading “From Ashes: No glitch”
Catechism 21
What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God? One who is truly human and also truly God. (New City Catechism) Can both dwell in one body – God and man, as though torn asunder, the two were somehow reconciled? As far as east is from west:Continue reading “Catechism 21”
From Ashes: The Crushed Flower (For Therese of Lisieux)
The flower that is me, Crushed – in crushing, free. Yet still I wilt here to see This dying beauty. Until You tread in victory, I languish in me. Crushed by foot, by sea Of crowd’s apathy, I will Yet trust, Christ, in Thee, Thorn-crowned on a tree, Your will Crushed; in crushing, free TheContinue reading “From Ashes: The Crushed Flower (For Therese of Lisieux)”
Bursting Dimensions
If you really believe, then the day and the dull of its light won’t confine the dimensions of sight; you may look through the night and see there the promise of Life. Do you really believe? On your way through the frontiers of darkness and time, you may feel all your might leak out intoContinue reading “Bursting Dimensions”
Catechism 20
Who is the Redeemer? The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself. (New City Catechism) From Adam’s flesh the perfect Man: God, human, redeeming what the apple’s curse has eaten. Who else? Our kinsman, yet notContinue reading “Catechism 20”
From Ashes: Sonnet
Though fearfully and wonderfully made, There are abscesses where my dirt is stored: See here, the time I learnt to cry, to wade In mud and mire, and hurt of my own accord. Though Grace has breathed its breath in me, I still Retain the sick fruit of Adam’s broken soil; In pain, in guilt,Continue reading “From Ashes: Sonnet”
Nocturne
Give – at the bending of the knee, at the turning-down of the sheets, at the folding of the hands in sleep – give, receive and rest. Give the day: its unresolved agonies, its fragments, its drafts and all the things we’d best forget. Give, and let it sleep. Receive: theContinue reading “Nocturne”
Nonnet for Vespers
At the going-down and the slowing, Taper me, Lord, but lose me not To the fading of the light. Within silence let me, O God, entrust all My daytime sight To render You, Lord, more Bright. Sergei Rachmaninoff, “Vespers: Now let thy servant depart”
Catechism 19
Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favour? Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer. (New City Catechism) Yet Eve’s offspringContinue reading “Catechism 19”
The Consolations of Writing 