“How To Speak Love In A Storm?”
How to speak love in a storm?
depends on the substance of the voice,
as the trees rage
and roof tiles smash,
where seagulls are grounded
and there is only chaos.
How to speak love in a storm?
is to put up a signpost for the lost,
as on the bitter hillside
you lie murmuring,
‘Why is this happening now?’
Exposure, like a fox,
circling your lamb’s heart.
How to speak love in a storm?
means finding the right inflection.
Not offering words and hollow prayers
but walking backwards with you
into your abandoned years. Stewart Henderson
These past weeks and months have made it feel that we are living in a storm. Quite literally for many this winter has been an ongoing storm of snow and ice, wind and rain, uncertainty and chaos. The world itself seems to be caught up in an unending storm of war and rage, hunger and homelessness, unheaval and fear. I do love the line in the poem that even the seagulls are grounded! Today is not about words and hollow prayers but walking backwards with you. We have to live in the present and in the company of one another perhaps that is what love does, it comes alongside reagrdless of the chaos and stays the course no matter how hard or difficult. Today, we live in a storm and it is within the storm that we seek to make love real. Whatever your storm may love surround you and may love be present in the flesh of friend and family, neigbour and stranger. The Christian calendar makes ready for the season called LENT a period of repentance and preparation for Easter. During these next 40 days may love be present and may you make it present to those you encounter. God bless.
Prayer:
Eternal God,
as I walk through life
my prayer is that your Spirit
will give to my feet and my faith
a hopeful tempo. May my walk be
steady and sure, seeking to be true
to the call of the gospel.
Help me to be quick to forgive,
slow to judge.
Quick to extend help,
slow to keep score of wrongs.
Quick to defend the rights of others, and
quicker still to provide a welcome to those
whose walk has taken them through deserts
and across seas in fear and uncertainty of their
next step.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear my prayer. Amen.
Prayers, Poems, and Christian Ponderings 
a needful word in a needful hour. Thank you Eddie
Hope you are surviving the weather. Blessings Eric
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a needful word in a needful hour. Thank you Eddie
Hope you are surviving the weather. Blessings Eric
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What a peaceful poem, even though its scene is a storm. I don’t know this poet so I learned more on his website and listened to it being read on Poetry Unbound. I liked the subtle inflections in the voice of the reader and poet, Padraig O Tuama and the way in which he has used the poem to offer comfort to others. That defined perfectly the notion of walking backwards into our abandoned years, at least in the context of the poem.
But I sense that there is more meaning to be had from that phrase and I need to ponder what that might be. I’m wondering if it might mean that those abandoned years have taught significant lessons from which we have failed to learn. Or does this mean that we can’t go back to those abandoned years and thus need new ways of thinking, of finding solutions to the immense challenges we face. I’m just not certain.
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