The Consolations of Writing

Lent 7: Tuesday of First Week

Our Father –
we are made of clay –
Our Father –
in heaven – in hearts – in
Heaven to hearts, our
Father who art
in heaven –

Hallowed be
Your name –
we pray, Your name we pray,
your kingdom come,
your will be done –
we pray your name, your will.
O come…

Your kingdom come
to bowls of dust,
to men of clay –
give us this day
the bread we need,
the bread You knead –
your kingdom come to us!

O Father, bring
your kingdom down –
to hollow hearts –
hallowed You are –
reshape our clay –
give us each day –
Our Father, here, in heaven.

Length of Days: 40 Poems for Lent – Available on Kindle

I’m pleased to announce that you can now purchase my sequence of Lent poems, “Length of Days: 40 Poems for Lent”, from the Amazon Kindle store. The book is the result of one of my first major poetry writing projects back in 2012, when I set myself the task of writing a poem a day throughout Lent. The poems that emerged from the project weave together the story of Jesus’ final week, from a variety of perspectives, with stories from the Old Testament. I hope and pray that these poems can be a helpful resource to others during this season.

Lent 6: Monday of First Week

Ben Shahn, "Beautitudes" http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/7540 — Ben Shahn, “Beautitudes”
http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/7540

Now grace topsy-turvies the world:

Mountain-top-truths speak to violent hearts

Declaring the way which turns cheek to foe

And blesses the poor in spirit, the meek,

The hungry, the thirsty, the peaceful, the weak.

Blessed are you: words strangely fitted,

A garment much brighter than all its surrounds.

A whisper of pain, a shout of good fortune,

Forth from a mouth which never spoke threats

And lay down the gauntlet of truth before those

Who only had swords for tongues.

Listen also to the vocal version of Vladimir Martynov – The Beatitudes (performed by the Sirin Ensemble)

Lent 5: First Sunday of Lent

So bones, built to follow, ache

When trapped inside guilt’s cave.

Tongues, carved to praise, grow numb

When, dry and thick with sin, they lie in silence.

And hearts, taught to turn upwards in trust,

Grow ashen when no light has space to shine.

Open, heart. Untangle, tongue. Bones, rejoice.

Redemption light shines into every hoping heart…

Gerard van Honthorst, "King David Playing the Harp" http://commons.wikimedia.org — Gerard van Honthorst, “King David Playing the Harp”
http://commons.wikimedia.org

Catechism 10

http://www.keyway.ca/htm2013/20130516.htm

What does God require in the fourth and fifth commandments?

Fourth, that on the Sabbath day we spend time in public and private worship of God, rest from routine employment, serve the Lord and others, and so anticipate the eternal Sabbath. Fifth, that we love and honour our father and our mother, submitting to their godly discipline and direction.

(New City Catechism)

Where, then, is striving?

Do we

carve our mark into the soil

as though

it were ours to claim,

to own, to train, subdue

for our own gain,

to lay up for ourselves a future

free from bended knees?

What good is our labour?

Do we

work up sweaty brows from toil

as though

the day were ours to win,

as though each crop bore our

pride, our triumph

in its temporary flourishing,

its momentary grace?

Look to the flowers,

the birds.

Do they toil and strive? And yet,

though they

cannot gain tomorrow, look

how fine each thread, each crown!

Trust the hand which

orders, which shapes the tides and knows all

secrets and all truth:

Look to the Father

and trust

the shades of earthly order.

See how

wise, how deep, His stores.

For though from birth your hand

was born clutching, trust

and bow: your heart, like soil, must be tilled

before the harvest’s plenty.

Lent 4: Saturday After Ash Wednesday

Elemental, yet
controlling element –
He who shapes dust also
sweeps the seas, surveys their tides,

searches land and sea,
eyes attuned to every wave,
scanning hearts and scouring minds,
seeking men like fish.

And then His hook goes out:
Follow me. Can men defy
the voice which once made light to be
and knows the heart’s abyss?

Elemental yet reshaping elements:
changing stone hearts to flesh,
remaking dull bones,
teaching dull feet to follow.

(Image: “Jesus Calling Disciples” by John Mosiman
http://sacredartpilgrim.com)

Lent 3: Friday After Ash Wednesday

Grain’s sown in soil to make us bread;

Man shall not live by bread alone.

The kingdoms of the earth are dust;

The Son of Heaven left His throne.

Our bones are brittle and will break;

All of your bones will stay in place.

The earth has cliffs to claim our lives.

My heart says of You, Seek His face!

The desert eats for forty days;

Yet He will guard You with His wings.

O God, remember: we are dust;

Beneath Your wings, we sing.

Lent 2: Thursday After Ash Wednesday

The soil says that we are dust;
In dust and soil we stand.
A voice from in the wilderness
Calls out, Prepare the way…

In dust a child lays its head,
In sawdust whittles wood
And takes on ash and dust for us
And washes in the sea.

In ash and dust we wait for you;
Our soiled souls now wait.
You take our ash, you take our dust
And wash us as you bleed.

Lent 1: Ash Wednesday
















Ash marks the face where the image was lost;
dust marks the skin once shaped from it.

Ash marks the doors to these bodies of dirt;
grace marks the scars skinned upon it.

Death marks the flesh once inspired by Life;
Life pays the cost to respire it.

Steps mark the knees bent upon them in prayer;
hope marks the soul there repining.

“Shriven” – Streaming Page CXVI Day 7

Today is Shrove Tuesday, a day simultaneously associated with pancakes and confession of sin. It is also the day before Lent begins, with Ash Wednesday’s focus on repentance: a day of feasting before the fast begins. Today’s song, the final track from Page CXVI’s “Lent to Maundy Thursday”, is a beautiful reflection on the love and grace of God, a perfect way to prepare our hearts for the beginning of the Lent season. If you have enjoyed what you’ve heard of the album in the past week, it will be released any moment now. (Due to the vagaries of timezones, I am posting this before it hits the 4th of March in the US.) Go to the band’s website for updates on availability.

Here also is my final pre-Lent poem. I am looking forward to sharing more Lent reflections with you over the next forty days. God bless.

Shrove Tuesday

Shrivelled, riven, sick with sin
  and grieved with griefs too deep, too dim -
I crawl, I climb, I cannot climb;
     I call, my God, I call.

I love the Lord; He hears my cry
  and drags me, dumb, out from the tomb;
my soul, my soul, destined for death -
     He lifts, my soul, He gives...

Sunken, shriven, sick within
  and barely breath left to breathe in -
my God, my God: I cry, You cry,
     and save my soul from sin.