[Sometimes, the search for a sermon feels like a game of free association – chasing words down rabbit holes and across parklands, trying to track down an idea, the spirit of an idea, and bottle it. This week’s wild goose is chasing glory.
Picture credit: “Elizabeth1England“. Attributed to William Segar – http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/exhibitions/2013/10/10/elizabeth-i-and-her-people. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.]
Gloriana
Behind the furs, the velvet touches,
behind the flaming hair and fierce reputation,
behind the rosebud lips, she knew herself
to be a bastard, born of a woman lost
to adultery and the sword which severed
her daughter’s umbilical inheritance of glory;
behind the lead paint, her face falling
into disrepair, she locked her despair
in a closet next to her crown.
None of us chooses
glory for herself, nor sees it shine,
mercurial, through the looking glass.
over the water 
