Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith

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Latest Posts

Springtime

By night when others soundly slept And hath at once both ease and Rest, My waking eyes were open kept And so to lie I found it best. I sought him whom my Soul did Love, With tears I sought him earnestly. He bow’d his ear down from Above. In vain I did not seek or cry....

Longing!

Under the dark trees, there he stands, there he stands; shall he not draw my eyes? I thought I knew a little how he compels, beyond all things, but now he stands there in the shadows. It will be Oh, such a daybreak, such bright morning, when I shall wake to see him as...

Christ My King

No one can come to spiritual delight in the contemplation of Christ’s godhead except he come first in imagination by painful identification, by compassion and steadfast thinking on his humanity. Walter Hilton (1343 – 96), Toward a Perfect Love.      ...

Feeling the Cold?

I found Him not in world or sun, Or in eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye; Nor through the questions men may try, The petty cobwebs we have spun:…   A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason’s coldest part, And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up...

Ceasefire

We have built a house that is not for Time’s throwing. We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever. War knows no power. Safe shall be my going, Secretly armed against all death’s endeavour; Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall; And if these poor...

Big Decision

To every man there openeth A Way, and Ways, and a Way. And the High Soul climbs the High way, And the Low Soul gropes the Low, And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A High Way, and a Low. And every man decideth...

Speak! One Word

 ‘Thou art a God that hidest Thyself’ (Isaiah 45:15)   ... Till Thou givest that sense beyond, To shew Thee that Thou art, and near, Let patience with her chastening wand Dispel the doubt and dry the tear; And lead me child-like by the hand If still in darkness...

Tell the Truth

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind — Emily Dickinson...

Never Too Late

So I go  out: my little sweet is done: I have drawn heat from this contagious sun: To not ungentle death now forth I run….   Now I am minded to take pipe in hand And yield a song to the decaying year...   So late the hoar green chestnut breaks a bud, And...

Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven

Walk with God

Walk with God

The Lord of all, himself through all diffused, Sustains, and is the life of all that lives. Nature is but a name for an effect Whose cause is God. He feeds the secret fires By which the mighty process is maintained, Who sleeps not, is not weary; in whose sight Slow...

God’s a Phone, Maybe

God’s a Phone, Maybe

...say God's a phone, maybe. You know you didn't order a phone, but there it is. It rings. You don't know who it could be. You don't want to talk, so you pull out the plug. It rings. You smash it with a hammer till it bleeds springs and coils and clobbery metal bits....

Flood our Hearts

Flood our Hearts

God of time and God eternal, God beyond millennia; God whose fingerprints reveal you In the atom and the stars:           Flood our hearts with hope and wonder,           Fill us with your healing love.   God, in Jesus, you have lived life, Shared constraints of...

Longing!

Longing!

Under the dark trees, there he stands, there he stands; shall he not draw my eyes? I thought I knew a little how he compels, beyond all things, but now he stands there in the shadows. It will be Oh, such a daybreak, such bright morning, when I shall wake to see him as...

The Bible: Bestowed Word of God

This book I read

This book I read

This book I read Floats in my hand like a water lily, Coming out of the nutrient waters of thought And light shines on us both, The morning’s breviary. Diane Wokoski (1937-).

Word of life that fires me

Word of life that fires me

Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided, Urged and inspired us, cheered us on our way, Sought us and saved us, pardoned and provided, Lord of the years, we bring our thanks today. Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us, Speaks to our hearts and...

God’s love-letter

God’s love-letter

A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him. The husband is not so stupid as to prefer his wife's letters to her voice, her...

Born among the trees and leaves

Born among the trees and leaves

O who will show me those delights on high Echo. I Thou echo, thou art mortal, all men know. Echo. No Wert thou not born among the trees and leaves? Echo. Leaves. And are there any leaves that still abide? Echo. Bide. What leaves are they? Impart the matter wholly....

Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person

Down to the World’s Cradle

Down to the World’s Cradle

Down to that littleness, down to all that Crying and hunger, all that tiny flesh And flickering spirit – down the great stars fall, Here the great kings bow. Here the farmer sees his fragile lambs, Here the wise man throws his books away. This manger is the universe’s...

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born.   And monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, And devil's walking parody On all four-footed things.   The tattered...

Happy Tree

There was a bright and happy tree; The wind with music laced its boughs; Thither across the houseless sea Came singing birds to house.   Men grudged the tree its happy eyes, Its happy dawns of eager sound; So all that crown and tower of leaves They levelled with...

Speak! One Word

Speak! One Word

 ‘Thou art a God that hidest Thyself’ (Isaiah 45:15)   ... Till Thou givest that sense beyond, To shew Thee that Thou art, and near, Let patience with her chastening wand Dispel the doubt and dry the tear; And lead me child-like by the hand If still in darkness...

Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless

My Seasons

My Seasons

This is the weather the cuckoo likes, and so do I When showers betumble the chestnut spikes and nestlings fly And the little brown nightingale bills his best, And they sit outside at the Traveller's Rest, And maids come forth sprig-muslin dressed, And citizens dream...

My Valentine

My Valentine

The sun itself, which makes times as they pass, Is elder by a year now than then it was, When thou and I first one another saw; All other things to their destruction draw, Only our love hath no decay; This, no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday. Running, it never runs from...

A no-where Person

There is no-where in you, a paradise that is no-place and there you do not enter, except without a story. To enter there is to become unnameable. Whoever is there is homeless for he has no door, no identity with which to go out and to come in.   Whoever is...

Christmas Check Out

Christmas Check Out

"I'm not looking forward to Christmas,"   The lass on the store check-out cries, Pinging the goods on the rumbling belt - The bread, and the wine, and the pies. I watch, as I stand in the fidgety queue As the lassie enlightens us all.   "The fuss and the...

The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting

Held Fast

Held Fast

I threaten'd to observe the strict decree     Of my dear God with all my power and might;     But I was told by one it could not be; Yet I might trust in God to be my light. "Then will I trust," said I, "in Him alone."     "Nay, e'en to trust in Him was also His:...

Passiontide

Passiontide

Thus far I did come laden with my sin; Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in Till I came hither; What a place is this: Must here be the beginning of my bliss? Must here the burden fall from off my back? Must here the strings that bound it to me crack? Blest...

On a Friday Morning

On a Friday Morning

It was on a Friday morning that they took me from the cell and I saw they had a carpenter to crucify as well. You can blame it on to Pilate You can blame it on the Jews You can blame it on the Devil But it's God that I accuse           'It’s God they ought to crucify...

God’s Better Beauty

God’s Better Beauty

To what serves mortal beauty? Dangerous; does set dancing blood....   What do then? How meet beauty? Merely meet it; own, home at heart, heaven's sweet gift; then leave, let that alone, Yea, wish that though, wish all, God's better beauty, grace.   Gerard...

Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living

Compassion

Compassion

We in our prideful counting are answerable to you: Facing the cost of our pride, we choose you; We choose you and your compassion; We choose you, because we trust that, You do not deal with us according to our sins, Nor repay us according to our iniquities. So we...

Not My King! Then Who is?

Not My King! Then Who is?

Love that gives, gives ever more, gives with zeal, with eager hands, spares not, keeps not, all outpours, ventures all its all expends. . Drained is love in making full, bound in setting others free, poor in making many rich, weak in giving power to be. . Therefore he...

Disclosure of God

Disclosure of God

Your disclosure of God Takes the lowliest path…. I must come down like Zacchaeus If I would have you dwell with me; On the roads, and on the shore; In the villages, towns and cities; Down among the cares, the sins, The labours and the sorrows of ordinary people. That...

Ring it Out and In

Ring it Out and In

 ... The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind    For those that here we see no more;    Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause,    And ancient...

Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience

I am the live God

I am the live God

              … These people know me only in the thin hymns of the mind, in the arid sermons and prayers. I am the live God, nailed fast to the old tree of a nation by its unreal tears. I thirst, I thirst for the spring water. Draw it up for me from your heart’s well...

Spring into Life

Spring into Life

Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirit, with the fragrance of the fields and the freshness of the oceans which you have made, and help me to hear and to hold in all dearness those exacting and wonderful words of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: Follow me.   Mary Oliver...

God’s fantastic move

God’s fantastic move

Tripping over Joy What is the difference Between your experience of Existence And that of a saint?   The saint knows that the spiritual path Is a sublime chess game with God And that the Beloved Has just a Fantastic Move   That the saint is now continually Tripping...

Sing Hosanna

Sing Hosanna

              Holy Spirit, New-Life Giver,             Rushing wind, and gentle inner flame,             Come, inspire us, strengthen, fire us,             to the glory of your name.   Find the riches of Christ in the stranger In the poor and those without...

Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful

Icy Inscape

Icy Inscape

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less; The times are winter, watch, a world undone; They waste, they wither worse; they as they run Or bring more or more blazon man's distress, And I not help....   Hope holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out To...

You Yourself In Me

You Yourself In Me

Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon your holy will. In every hour of the day, reveal your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of...

In the Night

In the Night

'Honest Doubt'? You say, but with no touch of scorn,          Sweet-hearted, you, whose light-blue eyes          Are tender over drowning flies, You tell me, doubt is Devil-born. I know not: one indeed I knew          In many a subtle question versed,          Who...

My Signal Box

My Signal Box

The signal box sometimes feels like one of those invitation tests: go to the wilds, endure the emptiness of yourself and return reformed. Confront that which is most you: stray to the dark realm of your bruised heart and let the light in, let the grand voice of...

The Church: Provisional but Necessary

Tree of Life: Upside Down

Tree of Life: Upside Down

There is a tree grows upside down, Its roots are in the sky; Its lower branches reach the earth When amorous winds are nigh.   One lone bough there starkly hangs A Man just crucified, And all the other branches bear The choice fruits of the Bride.   When...

Love You to Death

Love You to Death

I am beginning to understand I saw a sign once; outside a church.  It said Are you really living or just walking around to save the expense of a funeral?  I didn’t know that Love is real life, and everything else is just a more or less entertaining way of dying, and I...

Darkness Comes

Darkness Comes

What isolates me here in frozen clay But that same tidal shock which fell First upon England in your day? Betrayal of the truth is no new thing Within the fellowship of Christ, yet new Was the cold glare whence alien ripples flashed....   The darkness comes as...

Low Sunday?

Low Sunday?

Often I try to analyse the quality of its silences. Is this where God hides from my searching?...   These are the hard ribs of a body that our prayers have failed to animate. Shadows advance from their corners to take possession of places the light held for an...

The Mission of God

Caged Skylark?

Caged Skylark?

As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells - That bird beyond the remembering his free fells, This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age....   Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest  -...

Holy Island – What Me?

Holy Island – What Me?

Leave me alone with God  as much as may be, as the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island,  set apart, alone with You, God, holy to You.   Then, with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world, beyond...

Far From Home

Far From Home

All day long we’ve walked, my little boy so fretful, turning in my arms to stare behind us, back along that dusty road.   It’s as if he hears a distant sound, he’s listening, it seems, but much too young to know the dreadful things we’ve heard.   Now it’s...

Tell the Truth

Tell the Truth

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind — Emily Dickinson...

Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom

War Wounded

War Wounded

Across our planet earth there bleed the wounds of war, with livelihoods destroyed and cherished homes no  more; the people flee, abused and scarred and travelling far, poor refugees.   Across our planet earth the wounds of war go deep with generations taught...

The writing on the  wall

The writing on the wall

Silence like a cancer grows And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made. And the sign flashed out its warning, In the words that it was forming, And the signs said, ‘The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls And tenement halls, And...

Victory?

Victory?

Professional Sports   The endless carnival of those sports constitutes a dramatic affirmation of power, wealth and virility in which victory is accomplished by many abusive exploitations, all in pursuit of winning and being top of the heap of the money game....

Glory: Now and Then, Here and There

Son Worship

Son Worship

To long for the unsettling, unsetting Son is dangerous. Saints and Starets, sinners and seekers have found that Christ takes them at their word who say that they want, or would like, to know him.   Holy Fools have met him in the derision of sophisticates....

Deathbed

Now, when the frail and fine-spun Web of mortality Gapes, and lets slip What we have loved so long From out our lighted present Into the trackless dark We turn, blinded, Not to the Christ in Glory, Stars about his feet, But to the Son of Man, Back from the tomb, Who...

No Eulogy Please!

No Eulogy Please!

There was something defiant about his funeral, as if he had decided from the start to resist the eulogy....   The eulogy would be merely what he did in the waiting room: life's see-sawing of one foot onto the other, which is nothing, in comparison to the light so...

Autumnal

Autumnal

Mars burns bright and close this October: I watch it through the window, as I lie, too-awake, in the dark. Drawn-in under covers as the cold bites, I shrink, foetal-shaped but old-fleshed, frail.   I am autumnal: dry-leaved, mud-under-foot, dark-dayed,...