It is autumn in my home town of Melbourne as I write these words, and outside the University library the streets are bathed in orange, golden and golden-brown leaves. It is a glorious sight, one of those moments where something seemingly hopeless – the dying of leaves – can be simultaneously so beautiful. I wasContinue reading “From Ashes Part 8: No work for tinkers”
Tag Archives: God
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”
Philosophy is poetry if true
For truth is found in perfect, measured rhyme: The dance between the mystery and clue, The hint of infinite contained in time. Philosophy is true if it is said In words of simple honesty which ring With cosmic shimmers, and the truth is dead If language must obscure idea from thing. Plato’s only truth wasContinue reading “Philosophy is poetry if true”
The Jolt, the Life
Having been looked at by God, I had to and have to look at God. (Søren Kierkegaard, Journal) You – how can I call you by familiar names? Only Thou seems fitting; yet You invade Space, time, as though next to me, as though plain. Yet You are not plain: You assault, You raidContinue reading “The Jolt, the Life”
Psalm 131: Humility and Submission
Yesterday I posted a poem based on the beautiful Psalm 131. It is one of the shortest psalms in the Bible, yet one which I have found particularly comforting at times of emotional and psychological distress. Today I am posting a recording I have made of a new musical setting of Isaac Watts’ hymn basedContinue reading “Psalm 131: Humility and Submission”
From Ashes Part 5: “…all things are wearisome…”
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher saith, All things are vanity. The eye and ear Cannot be filled with what they see and hear. Like early dew, or like the sudden breath Of wind, or like the grass that withereth, Is man… (Christina Rossetti, “The One Certainty”) Some years ago, the greatest comfortContinue reading “From Ashes Part 5: “…all things are wearisome…””
Catechism 18
Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgment both in this life, and in the life to come. (New CityContinue reading “Catechism 18”
From Ashes Part 5: “…all that I have written is but straw”
…if the evil which is the cause of sorrow be not so strong as to deprive one of the hope of avoiding it, although the soul be depressed in so far as, for the present, it fails to grasp that which it craves for; yet it retains the movement whereby to repulse that evil. If,Continue reading “From Ashes Part 5: “…all that I have written is but straw””
Catechism 17
What is idolatry? Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security. (New City Catechism) Unclear the moment when the tree ceases to be an ornament, a source of food, a sign of flourishing, Continue reading “Catechism 17”
The Consolations of Writing 