Monthly Archives: October 2017

Psalm at Deal

I am in the heart of God
And God is in my heart.
There is no place, no organisation
No institution, that holds me
To this earth, rather I am connected
To every family under heaven
By the heart dwelling One.
As the tide rises and falls,
As the waves crash and the shingle rattles,
I am in awe of the order of creation,
The patterns of time and chaos,
Of light and colour, dark and shadow.
My breath goes out on the breeze
And returns to refresh me again.
My muscles move, my brain imagines:
The world rotates and the sun breaks through.
With each movement I know you
As Companion and side walking one.
When the stones scatter as we step together
Or you catch me as my feet stumble,
I know you have been this way before.
I hear the sounds of the shore,
Gulls and people start their morning shriek,
Yet they do not disturb my focus.
I am in the heart of God
And God is in my heart.

29.10. 2017 Deal

The last day

Potatoes at the roundabout,
Herons by the canal,
Pointing the way
On the last day.
We make our way to Tyne Cot,
Last and biggest,
An endless wall of names
Row upon row of stones,
The dead held here forever.
This fought over land
That emerged from mud
Now a perpetual piece of Empire:
A never to be forgotten field.

25.10.2017 Tyne Cot

Grace

For everything there is seasoning ;
There’s a time to eat and a time to fast;
A time to fill your plate and a time to empty it;
A time for the first supper and a time for the last.

25.10.2017, Poperinge

At the name

We find them every time:
Those with names the same
As ours, the same age
As a brother or fellow student.

If this was your local regiment
Would you have volunteered?

“Not me I’m a coward.”
You’re no coward if you understand
That peace is a better way than war,
And you live as if that matters most.

24.10.2017 Fricourt

Air

A white butterfly flew into the crater,
Vast expanse of air lined with grass,
Held up by molecules, supported by atoms,
Summonsed by the mist, called to by birds.

24.10.2017 Lochnagar crater

The ridge 

When you stand at the top of Thiepval ridge,
And see the way they came, weighed down,
And look across the landscape still bearing signs,
One hundred years later you are still speechless.

JAL 24.10.2017 Thiepval

The son

The sun shone on Langermaark today
Which I don’t remember it doing before.
The acorns crunched under our feet,
As the canopy of heroes oaks wept for their sons.
Here they lie; students, artists,
others too numerous to imagine,
With three crosses to recall
the promise made by the Son:
‘Today you will be with me in paradise’.

JAL 23.10.2017

A blessing a Hospital Farm cemetery 

The blessing of the Creator, watching like the deer;
The blessing of the Son, running like the Hare;
The blessing of the Holy Spirit, hovering like the buzzard;
Bless those who tread this holy ground
And those waiting for the final trumpet sound.

JAL 23.10.2017

He descended into hell

Down, down, down
Into the dark earth,
Through the white limestone,
Along the barely lit tunnel,
Past the latrines,
The command post,
The altar and the well,
To eight days of dripping darkness
Of boards for beds and meals from cans,
Of icy water for washing and damp boots,
Before standing ready at the steps
In the cold light of predawn,
When your name’s called and the signal given,
The stone is moved
And like the tomb quitting gardener,
you emerge as a newborn lamb,
To the barrage and the bomb:
A shell bursts overhead
And it’s ‘killed in action’ on the telegram,
And ‘greater love has no one than this’
On the neatly cut stone.

In our life and our believing
The love of God

JAL 22.10.2017
Wellington Quarry, Arras, 1917.

Live, create, offer

LCStB 1

Last weekend I took Bambi to the Northern regional meeting of the Lay Community of St Benedict. It was in Wolverhampton. It’s OK, we will get them further north eventually (there were people there from Torquay).
I’ve been a seeker in the Lay Community since last autumn, and last weekend made my first formal promise of membership in the community. The words include the promise to ‘Live Holy communion, create Holy space and offer Holy service’. It’s likely to take a lifetime to unpack.
I’m grateful to my fellow lay Benedictines for their welcome. As a wandering loose canon for a while now, it’s good to feel some connection again.
Bambi played her part: others came to visit, to look, talk and share. This small beginning confirmed me that Bambi can be a space for communion and service, amongst other things.

Everyday we are held in God’s gaze,
On right or wrong days,
Through wide or narrow ways:
God is eye to eye with us
Holding, confirming, loving.