Come before the winter next my love,before the frost traps fern fronds on the panebefore the world flies south to keep alivebefore the winds grow wildaround this fragile hopeand freeze its heart for well you knowthere are no sheltersfor a prayer caught lateupon the winter of a soul amidst the turning I will waitbefore the winter next […]
Lord, have mercy on a man whose hardest cross we only glimpsed was caring much who all these days looked out through the private scars of wounded sight have mercy on a weary heart and haunted too we think until remembering itself became a shadow that cast long across his face […]
You lie, as always, head tipped forwards on the awkward abundance of those pillows. Today you are near the surface.But more often the climb is wearyingly hardto break surface and return our greeting.Here for a moment is the familiar smile. Your eyes reach ours,but not for long.You sink back down light fading from your vacant face. This journey will take all the […]
This Island has no interest in me […]
‘Let anyone who has an ear to hear, listen …..’ Rev 3.13 Along with many in our society I am hearing impaired. I am also one of a growing number who struggle with tinnitus*. Strange isn’t it? In a world of incredibly sophisticated information and communication technology we are actually getting deafer. I was sitting […]
Gloucester Cathedral First Light draws back the covers on the building site we are all callingPilgrimrevealing an unscheduled Flower FestivalNo one saw it arriving or setting upIt has by-passed essentials such asplanning committees, budgets, commsand even, so far as we can ascertain,Lottery FundingBut here it isunminuted and unsupervisedexuberantly commandeering the slopeson all the builders are rejecting. Open dailyEntry […]
Awake very early without reason – and none is needed. So here I am, well before the dawn, jogging on the towpath in the dark, by faith not sight, torch strictly for emergencies. Merton believed that after God created the day and the night he preferred the night. He is surely right. So do I. […]
Forty years ago on, on 30th September 1979 …. I was ordained at St Paul’s Cathedral and began a curacy at Holy Trinity, Wealdstone. Training had been hugely fulfilling. St John’s, Nottingham was a place of exciting spiritual and theological riches for me, with an exceptional faculty. A number of lifelong friendships began there. Within […]
Pilgrim Today off the corner of the island of Saints the sea is wildGod’s firstborn have surfaced there chaos monsters are at play There are no rules of coursethey simply hurl themselves at everything bellowing in primal joyLaughter booms across the whirlwindAll is drenched in salt and light The rocks, as they […]