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Category Archives: poetry
Balance
Picking my way across the wrongend of the beach, avoidingrocks that rock beneath my weight,overhead branches that claw at my head,empty bottles, remnants of some illicit picnic,metal rope, remnant of some construction project,sea glass and sharp plastic shards,the frigid, opaque … Continue reading
Good Friday: a pieta
He died with the cry crushed from his chest,calling out from the cross to his mother.They crucified him on a stolen hill.They gambled away his clothes.He called out to his mother, shecould not swaddle his naked pain. When he was … Continue reading
Washed in the word
Beside a lake melted into being by glaciers I bathe my feet in your word made water – the fluidity of creation – dry them in the sand, scourings of the land eroded, as all flesh, remade asa million grains … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged footwashing, Holy Week, Lake Erie
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How I discovered that I have no sense of smell
if my devotions appear lacking or incomplete,
charge it I pray to my imperfect property,
and not to my intent. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged Holy Week, John 12:1-11, Mary of Bethany
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Holy Saturday
Sealedin a tomb innocentof inscription, the stoneworn smooth by centuries of rain, the tears of heaven shedfor this, the day of dereliction, God’sChrist is dead;his body, unanointed, plumbsthe depths of human dissipation,And will he find me there,*buried in my own … Continue reading
Hear my prayer
The lake has melted. Sand and shale
strewn by the winter floes litter the beach.
I pick out the pebbles that hint at a heart
of stone. My prayers are rocks
thrown heavenward; Continue reading
“A sin of fear”
Fear of our own condemnation is what leads us so often to condemn others. Fear of missing out makes us grasping and fetters our generosity of spirit. We covet what is our neighbour’s instead of making sure that they have enough to get by. Fear of rejection leads us to scapegoat, separate, scorn those whom Christ would welcome from the cross into paradise. Fear makes thieves of our prayers. We seek to secure to ourselves the blessings that God would share with the whole of creation. Continue reading
Posted in poetry, sermon
Tagged 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, A Hymn to God the Father, Exodus 20: 1-17, John 2:13-22, John Donne, Lent, Year B Lent 3
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Ash Wednesday comes around again
Ashes line the grate after the great snow storm. Chill strikes down the chimney; a ghost stepping over the grave of last night’s fire. Ashes lift and shiver, settle and sigh, whisper to the warm wood tales of passion; eagerly, … Continue reading
A prayer for a bad day
(Save it for when you need it. May you never need it.) This post first appeared at the Episcopal Cafe, Speaking to the Soul, on February 10, 2021 There are days that will not let go.They drag at you like … Continue reading
red white and blue
Content warning for fear of gun violence at a school sirens stretch the air like an old jazz horn lights the color of a fresh wound pause snow around the school drive pounded into ice by parents pacing out their … Continue reading
over the water 