Tag: poem
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Patient Oak
There are times when the wisest option is to say nothing. There are times when we can feel we don’t trust ourselves to say anything. There are times of silence because any expression of the current situation seems inadequate or insincere. There are times of silence because of sorrow. There are times of silence because…
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Sacramental
I’m praying with eyes open today, as Peterson recommends (see ‘The Contemplative Pastor’). As I do so, I’m mulling over the psalmists concern to: “behold the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.” Sacramental Made of meat, flesh on bone, dust gathering on soles of feet. Dust and stone my kith and…
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This is the day
Awake my soul The many shades of sky, crystalline white, pale mauve, a green, soft, light rests in to the blue, aqua tones found nowhere else in nature, except on the back of rare, warm water creatures. Yet here I sit staring out on a winters sky at the mid point between the equator and…
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The Wasp
The wasp on my window, Knowing the sky is there, Though seen, not experienced. Small sharp stabs of flight. He could settle for this, Call this reality, climbing Up and down the pane, A two dimensional life. Near the top, a two inch bar Of PVC between him And the great wide open spaces of…
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Just like Clint
I wrote this poem as I reflected on Clint Eastwood’s excellent film ‘Grand Torino’. To those of you who’ve seen it this will hopefully make a lot of sense, to those of you who haven’t, I hope its poetic enough to meaningful in its own right. Just Like Clint (after Grand Torino) I have no classic…
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The Clod & the Pebble
The following is a wonderfully insightful poem by William Blake (1757-1827) The Clod & the Pebble ‘Love seeketh not Itself to please, ‘Nor for itself hath any care; ‘But for another gives its ease, ‘And builds a heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sang a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle’s feet : But…
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A harvest reflection
I wrote the following reflection for a the lead up to the lord’s supper at the harvest event we had last night. We sow seeds, but we did not create them. We plant them in the ground; a soil we did not form. The rain nourishes it, with waters we did not produce. The sun…
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Reflection: Psalm139
You are there before me Each moment Is me arriving Into your present Into your Presence You are there before me As I pass from one moment to the next I constantly arrive in you I find myself again I find myself In you Each moment A newness in you You — before me And…
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Reflection: Townships and shopping malls
The following is a poetic reflection on a recent visit to Cape Town. What struck me about the city was the how it seems to be the world shrunk into a city, with global culture and wealth, living next to extreme poverty. I would say, “rubbing shoulders with poverty” – but that would be an…