Spring Sonnet

The lilac bush puts forth its purple spikes
and pink-tipped blossom decks the apple tree,
while on the ground the bright-faced primrose likes
to highlight shaded violet’s modesty;
and on the cherrybough full-throated thrush
sings out in answer to the cuckoo’s call,
and over all the earth the first fair flush
of Spring unfolds its beauty to enthral.
In full accord but by [...]

Read Full Post »

Wilderness – 4

‘He must have recited a hundred prayers that morning, before the sun obliged and warmed him through. His prayers brought up the sun. His prayers suppressed his appetite. His prayers picked out the sunlight on the dead and silver sea and hardened it. It turned it into jewellery. The water was as solid as a [...]

Read Full Post »

Prayer partner

Not a new poem, but one written out of a powerful experience of shared prayer.
And as she wrestled her
headlong thoughts into
focus, strong hands
enfolded and controlled
as if invisible reins
had felt a master’s touch.
And for a timeless space
the shared prayer streamed
beneath the virgin’s gaze
to join the glass-note song
that pierces with its love.
We prayed, you and I,
as the [...]

Read Full Post »

The remade covenant

Jeremiah. My beloved Jeremiah. Naturally melancholy, and able to hear the worst of my messages. One of the most honest of all my children – and how he suffered for it.
But there was a kind of a reward for him. He saw so far into my heart. He grew so much. [...]

Read Full Post »

Nevada desert

Enormous events have taken place in desert places. Some have been spiritual, some confrontational, some solitary, some involving huge armies. But the desert itself remains, and the silence remains when all else is gone. My experience of desert came in Nevada. I loved the promise of the silence, but shrank from the memory of the [...]

Read Full Post »