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What of the stanzas we never sing?

It was a silly conversation between myself and my mentor some 40+ years ago. We were sitting in his study just a few hundred yards off Princes Street in Edinburgh, and the conversation began quite serious concerning the “after life” but as it progressed with both of us trying to reach for words that didn’tContinue reading “What of the stanzas we never sing?”

Lairg, Sutherland

If only we had known then, what we know now. If only we could have appreciated the landscape then, the way we often long for that landscape today! In my late 20s and serving my first solo position with the Church of Scotland following two years in a city center church in Edinburgh which wasContinue reading “Lairg, Sutherland”

…and longing, yes, this most of all;

Sitting on my desk and due to be returned to the library is Franny Choi’s book of poems The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On . I posted that poem a few weeks ago and today I will post a second choice.The poem Things That Already Go Past Borders, is really a seriesContinue reading “…and longing, yes, this most of all;”

Dance, that ye need no other day!

After a severe storm last night I am hoping summer is not too far away. I think of fireflies and butterflies. In summer days I marvel as the sun sets and the darkening night is lit up with fireflies! Appearing and disappearing, shifting places with one another! A timely reminder of the beauty all aroundContinue reading “Dance, that ye need no other day!”

The Cord

The Cord for Ella They cut the cord she was born withand buried it under a treein the heart of the Great Forestwhen she was exactly the lengthof her mother’s nursing elbowto the tip of her thumb. She learned to speak and asked them,though she was young yet,what the cord had looked like –had aContinue reading “The Cord”

“Like thread through a needle”

Separation Your absence has gone through meLike thread through a needle.Everything I do is stitched with its color. W.S. Merwin 1927-2019 From a giant of a poet spanning nine decades I delight in one of his shortest poems. We are not told much in the poem but we feel the sorrow and the joy inContinue reading ““Like thread through a needle””

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On!

THe World Keeps Ending and the World Goes OnBefore the apocalypse, there was the apocalypse of boats:boats of prisoners, boats cracking under sky-iron, boats making corpsesbloom like algae on the shore. Before the apocalypse, there was the apocalypseof the bombed mosque. There was the apocalypse of the taxi driver warpedby flame. There was the apocalypseContinue reading “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On!”

Pilgrimage

In this season of Lent we journey toward Easter and the theme of pilgrimage is a familair way to make our preparations for discipleship. It is hard to imagine that in the turmoil of Elizabethan England, pilgrimage was itself prohibited as was all use of catholic imagery following The Reformation. The photo above is ofContinue reading “Pilgrimage”

“…seagulls are grounded”

“How To Speak Love In A Storm?” How to speak love in a storm?depends on the substance of the voice,as the trees rageand roof tiles smash,where seagulls are groundedand there is only chaos. How to speak love in a storm?is to put up a signpost for the lost,as on the bitter hillsideyou lie murmuring,‘Why isContinue reading ““…seagulls are grounded””

“Death has come here on holiday…”

From Minneapolis in Januaryby Michael Bazzett We live in the numbnessof an occupied citywhere every story has anotherstory curled inside its labyrinth— and when Sleep readsto you at bedtime, it isthe nested one that comesslinking out to sew you, with tiny stitches andscarlet thread, to the mattress.It is a story that believes itselfto be permanentContinue reading ““Death has come here on holiday…””