Ash Wednesday – The Consolations of Writing

Ash (Lent 1)

From dust and ashes (After a poem by Nelly Sachs)

We travel through cosmic debris. All the time a war wages – starshower missiles, misguided asteroids. The mayhem is our doing. Harmony – meant to be sung – ended with us. Begin again with us. From ashes we stand, cupped hands opened to receive, to re-enter Your orbit. (Inspired by this translation of Nelly Sachs:Continue reading “From dust and ashes (After a poem by Nelly Sachs)”

Wednesday’s Colours (Glenroy Lent #2)

Fire is the colour of the eastbound sun lighting the face of the dusty sky. Ash is the colour of this roadwork black, of tarmac where the plane lost flight. Red is the colour of the traffic light, gold the colour in the new day’s eye, and ash to ash is this road we drive;Continue reading “Wednesday’s Colours (Glenroy Lent #2)”

Counting Words and Days: For Ash Wednesday

Because we’ve loaded even our song with so much music that it’s slowly sinking and we’ve decorated our art so much that its features have been eaten away by gold and it’s time to say our few words because tomorrow our soul sets sail. (Giorgos Seferis, “An Old Man on the River Bank”) I shouldContinue reading “Counting Words and Days: For Ash Wednesday”

Burnt-out Prayer: For Ash Wednesday

King: I cannot come to You however I choose yet all I am is a bundle hurriedly put together, no sack cloth, no ashes, hair still mussed from slumber, limbs dragging, soul flat, feet not yet expecting to walk… Can I come to You as a stowaway, scarcely awake, found among cargo, hiding like JonahContinue reading “Burnt-out Prayer: For Ash Wednesday”

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 themContinue reading “Lent 1: Ash Wednesday”