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”
Tag Archives: prayer
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”
Go to Dark Gethsemane: Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day 2
First the garden. And this first betrayal: friends asleep when most needed; then – another in the wings, a kiss at the ready; a sword, the sternness of armies come to slay a spotless lamb. O Christ – I have not even a sword; only betrayers’ kisses heaped withContinue reading “Go to Dark Gethsemane: Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day 2″
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”
Evening Prayer
The leaves whistle change; no longer burning, the air sings a softer tune, and I wander in the evening street attuned to change, yet stuck within the day’s exhaustion, mind empty, spirit vacant. I lift my arms to walk, to pray, the day ahead uncertain, silent – cooler, but still not within my arms’ reach.Continue reading “Evening Prayer”
Being (After Denise Levertov’s “Flickering Mind”)
Well, November is running away from us and so far I’ve only managed one poem for my 12 Poets Project this month. So it’s time for another one, this one inspired by Denise Levertov’s wondering “Flickering Mind”, one of the best poetic expressions I have read of the human mind’s struggle with religious devotion. YouContinue reading “Being (After Denise Levertov’s “Flickering Mind”)”
Fragments of a Prayer (After George MacDonald’s “A Broken Prayer”)
I’ve been slipping behind a bit in my poetry project this month. There’s been a lot going on in my life! But it’s time to start catching up. So today I’m looking at one of George MacDonald’s most complex but also compelling poems, “A Broken Prayer”, a poem written in a hybrid of free andContinue reading “Fragments of a Prayer (After George MacDonald’s “A Broken Prayer”)”
He that made the ear (After George Herbert’s “Longing”)
My last George Herbert-inspired poem is a bit different to the other three. This time I have decided to use just two lines from his poem, “Longing”, as the stimulus for my own poem: Lord heare! Shall he that made the ear Continue reading “He that made the ear (After George Herbert’s “Longing”)”
Quatrain (III)
Without ground beneath feet I am stumbling, Without bearings I’m caught out of place. But to You in this vacuum and rumbling I can turn, for You shape the dark space.
Obsession (After George Herbert’s “Affliction (IV)”)
The fact that George Herbert wrote a number of poems of called “Affliction” tells us something about the nature of his life and the hardships, many of them internal, that he endured. Today’s poem is based on his fourth “Affliction” poem, a poem that resonates strongly with me despite the four hundred years that haveContinue reading “Obsession (After George Herbert’s “Affliction (IV)”)”
The Consolations of Writing 