Our Journey for Lent begins - with a new round of Art to share with you, connecting faith and feeling, spirituality and art - an...
A Purification At start of spring I open a trenchIn the ground. I put into it The winter’s accumulation of paper, Pages I do not want...
Makebelieve And on the first day god made something up. Then everything came along: seconds, sex and beasts and breaths and...
Today is the Festival of Holi - birthed from Hinduism, but a celebration of Indian/Nepalese culture worldwide. It is also World Poetry...
I Worried I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the riversflow in the right direction, will the earth turnas it was...
Little Gidding V What we call the beginning is often the endAnd to make and end is to make a beginning.The end is where we start...
The Bright Field I have seen the sun break throughto illuminate a small fieldfor a while, and gone my wayand forgotten it. But that...
FOR LENT, 1966 It is my Lent to break my Lent. To eat when I would fast, To know when slender strength is spent, Take...
Lullaby Lay your sleeping head, my love,Human on my faithless arm;Time and fevers burn awayIndividual beauty fromThoughtful children,...
The More Loving One Looking up at the stars, I know quite wellThat, for all they care, I can go to hell,But on earth indifference is...
Hoodlum BirdsThe fearless blackbirds see me againat the footpath beside the tall grassessprouting like unruly morning hair.They caw and...
Narrative Theology And I said to him Are there answers to all of this? And he said The answer is in a story and the story is being...
Anthem The birds they sangat the break of dayStart again,I heard them say,Don’t dwell on whathas passed awayor what is yet to be.The...
I saw the Sun at Midnight I saw the Sun at midnight, rising red,Deep-hued yet glowing, heavy with the stainOf blood-compassion, and I...
Good Friday Am I a stone, and not a sheep,That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow...
The Coming And God held in his handA small globe. Look he said.The son looked. Far off,As through water, he sawA scorched land of...
“Hope” is the thing with feathers “Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words...
Caged Bird A free bird leapson the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current endsand dips his wingin the orange sun...
Preludes IThe winter evening settles downWith smell of steaks in passageways.Six o’clock.The burnt-out ends of smoky days.And now a...
The Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and...
Advent Calendar He will come like last leaf’s fall.One night when the November windhas flayed the trees to bone, and earthwakes...
Advent Credo It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—This is true: For God so loved the...
Advent Wind whistling, as it does in winter, and I think nothing of it until it snaps a shutter offher bedroom window, spins it over...
The Winter Is Cold, Is Cold The winter is cold, is cold.All’s spent in keeping warm.Has joy been frozen, too?I blow upon my handsStiff...
Advent 1955 The Advent wind begins to stirWith sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,It's dark at breakfast, dark at tea,And in between we...
Continuities Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.Nor life, nor force, nor...
Let Me Not Lose My Dream Let me not lose my dream, e'en though I scan the veil with eyes unseeing through their glaze of tears,Let me...
Advent Good Wishes Give you joy, wolf,when Messiah makes you meekand turns your roar into a cry thatjustice has been done for the...
Advent Hands I see the hands of Joseph.Back and forth along bare wood they move.There is worry in those working hands,sorting out...
Into The Darkest Hour It was a time like this,War & tumult of war,a horror in the air.Hungry yawned the abyss-and yet there came...
The Stable The winds were scornful,Passing by;And gathering AngelsWondered why A burdened MotherDid not mindThat only animalsWere...
ADVENT (On a theme by Dietrich Bonhoeffer) Look how longthe tired world waited,locked in its lonely cell,guilty as a prisoner. As...
The God We Hardly Knew No one can celebratea genuine Christmaswithout being truly poor.The self-sufficient, the proud,those who,...
Advent 'Come,' Thou dost say to Angels,To blessed Spirits, 'Come':'Come,' to the lambs of Thine own flock,Thy little ones, 'Come...
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.Flood waters...
Christmas Bells I heard the bells on Christmas DayTheir old, familiar carols play,And wild and sweetThe words repeatOf peace on earth,...
Nativity Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment,There He hath made Himself to His intentWeak...
The Journey Of The Magi A cold coming we had of it,Just the worst time of the yearFor a journey, and such a long journey:The ways deep...
Hill Christmas They came over the snow to the bread’spurer snow, fumbled it in their hugehands, put their lips to itlike beasts,...
Excerpt from Declaration of Intent Let the colonial borders be seen for the pretensions they areI hereby honour what the flow of water...
Sail Away Early in the day it was whispered that we should sail in a boat,only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of...
Sea Fever I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her...
Fluent I would love to liveLike a river flows,Carried by the surpriseOf its own unfolding. John O’Donohue
Like The Water Like the waterof a deep stream,love is always too much.We did not make it.Though we drink till we burst,we cannot...
Autumn Rain The plane leavesfall black and weton the lawn; the cloud sheavesin heaven’s fields setdroop and are drawn in falling...
The Water-fall With what deep murmurs, through Time's silent stealth,Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat'ry wealth, ...
Prairie Waters by Night CHATTER of birds two by two raises a night song joining a litany of running water—sheer waters showing the...
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters All day I hear the noise of watersMaking moan,Sad as the sea-bird is when, goingForth alone,He...
Ghazal: Woman At The Well In this late season, who is the woman at the welldrawing water, reflecting on the woman at the well?...
My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears My grandmother puts her feet in the sink of the bathroom at...
Water If I were called inTo construct a religionI should make use of water.Going to churchWould entail a fordingTo dry, different...
At the River Clarion 1. I don’t know who God is exactly.But I’ll tell you this.I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on...
During Pride week, our daily prayers are offered by parishioners and clergy who are part of the queer community. Today, join Karen...
During Pride week, our daily prayers are offered by parishioners and clergy who are part of the queer community. Today, join Kit and...
A piece of poetry for today's glimpse of the Divine in the ordinary, though one could argue that metaphysical poetry relates to...
This is one that I don't need to comment on. It's a poem that speaks for itself, by the Poet-Philosopher-Priest RS Thomas. The...
Join us as we gather online to mark the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, also known as Candlemas, with a recorded service of word...
As you may have seen elsewhere (like here), we have begun our Lenten journey with a blog which will share a poem a day through this...
Lent It is good to be last not first, Pending the present distress;It is good to hunger and thirst,So it be for...
Blessing the Dust All those daysyou felt like dust,like dirt,as if all you had to dowas turn your facetoward the windand be...
For Courage When the light around lessensAnd your thoughts darken untilYour body feels fear turnCold as a stone inside, When you find...
The Place Where We Are Right From the place where we are rightflowers will never growin the spring. The place where we are rightis...
Thanks Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are...
The Third Yes My first yes was eager and earnest and ill-thoughtit was spirited and bouncing and saw the wholeworld like a Chicago...
Poetry For Supper 'Listen, now, verse should be as naturalAs the small tuber that feeds on muckAnd grows slowly from obtuse soilTo the...
God Went to India To see the elephants.God adores elephants.He thinks they arethe best thingHe ever made.They do everythingHe hoped...
Just Like Job My Lord, my Lord,Long have I cried out to TheeIn the heat of the sun,The cool of the moon,My screams searched the...
Saint Francis and the Sow The budstands for all things,even for those things that don’t flower,for everything flowers, from within,...
E Tenebris Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach thy hand,For I am drowning in a stormier seaThan Simon on thy lake of Galilee:The...
When Death Comes When death comeslike the hungry bear in autumn;when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy...
Blame the Vicar When things go wrong it's rather tameTo find we are ourselves to blame,It gets the trouble over quickerTo go and blame...
God's Grandeur The world is charged with the grandeur of God.It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;It gathers to a...
The Glory Without any rhymewithout any reasonmy heart lifts to lightin this bleak season Believer and wanderercaught by...
We Wear the Mask We wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes—This debt we pay to human guile;With...
Monet Refuses the Operation Doctor, you say there are no haloesaround the streetlights in Parisand what I see is an aberrationcaused...
Days What are days for?Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time over.They are to be happy in: Where can we live...
Lenten Poem Lent is a time to take time to let the powerof our faith story take hold of us,a time to let the events get upand walk...
Church Going Once i am sure there's nothing going onI step inside letting the door thud shut. Another church: matting seats and stone...
I Said to Poetry I said to Poetry: "I'm finishedwith you."Having to almost diebefore some wierd lightcomes creeping throughis no fun....
You Begin You begin this way:this is your hand,this is your eye,this is a fish, blue and flaton the paper, almostthe shape of an...
I Go Among Trees And Sit Still I go among trees and sit still.All my stirring becomes quietaround me like circles on water.My tasks...
If I Could Tell You Time will say nothing but I told you so,Time only knows the price we have to pay;If I could tell you I would let...
Song Of A Dream Once in the dream of a night I stood Lone in the light of a magical wood, Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;...
Do It Anyway People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.Forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you...
The Celestial Fire Now an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a blazing fire -- a fire that devours fire;a fire that burns in...
The Lake Isle of Innisfree I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;Nine...
This is what was bequeathed us ListenThis is what was bequeathed us:This earth the beloved leftAnd, leaving,Left to us. No other...
Alone Lying, thinkingLast nightHow to find my soul a homeWhere water is not thirstyAnd bread loaf is not stoneI came up with one...
What to Remember When Waking In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,coming back to this life from the other,more...
Messenger My work is loving the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –equal seekers of sweetness.Here the quickening...
For Lent, 1966 It is my Lent to break my Lent,To eat when I would fast,To know when slender strength is spent,Take shelter from the...
Kindness Before you know what kindness really isyou must lose things,feel the future dissolve in a momentlike salt in a weakened...
Pray For Peace Pray to whomever you kneel down to:Jesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross,his suffering face bent to...
Clear heart Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. —Psalm 51.10 Beloved,amid the clutter within...
Come and Journey Come and journey with a Saviour who has called us from our birth, who has washed us in the waters, and who loved us...
Impossibility The salt water in the swimming holesurrounded me last night saying,Trust yourself. They need you. Bring only love, the...
Today's Poem was submitted by Parishioner and Parish Councillor Susan Bansgrove: Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward Let mans Soule...
When sorrow comes When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life.Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by...
Gethsemane The grass never sleeps.Or the roses.Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning. Jesus said, wait with...
The Way of Pain 1.For parents, the only wayis hard. We who give lifegive pain. There is no help.Yet we who give paingive love; by pain...
Silent God This is my prayer—That, though I may not see,I be awareOf the Silent GodWho stands by me.That, though I may not feel,I be...
We are baffled Christ is RisenHe is risen indeed!We are baffled by the very Easter claim we voice.Your new life fits none of our...
"And yet ..." each piece carefully and thoughtfully removedlayers peeled awayharsh, barren surfacesand yet ... The light dimmedThe...
Psalm 150 Some folks fool themselves into believing,But I know what I know once, at the heightOf hopeless touching, my man and I...
An offering from Stephanie Wood, Curate at St John's - Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers" with this reflection: I...
At Last the New Arriving Like the horn you played in Catholic schoolthe city will open its mouth and cry out. Don't worry 'bout...
An offering from Susan McCabe - member of St John's community, who shared this painting and this poem to go with it: Sonnets to...
Today's Art and Soul offering was suggested by Sabina Singh, local luminary, scholar-activist, and politician. It's an untitled work by...
Today's Poem is shared with us by Susan Bansgrove, Parish Councillor and active part of the community of St John the Divine. She...
I offered this poem to many of my patients when I was serving as a Chaplain for Providence Health Care. In particular, my patients who...
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings The free bird leapson the back of the windand floats downstreamtill the current...
A contribution from another Parishioner at St John's for today - a song lyric from 'The Celtic Women" submitted by Terry Needham, PC...
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