Category Archives: poetry

Morning Prayer for July 7, 2016: Psalm 18, Part I

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Last time, I came back cold; colder than any living thing was meant to feel. Your burning coals, flung from your flaming tongue, extinguished themselves against the skin of my unclaimed body, and I didn’t feel a thing, except cold; … Continue reading →

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The business traveller

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

After the incident; forever after as he travelled from city to stone city, he would look across the crowd, scanning the horizon and its fall, not for danger – he never saw the robbers coming, never would – blissfully ignorant, … Continue reading →

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Year C Proper 9: God-mother

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Children of the promise, your God
sings you lullabies of sweet surrender;
binds you with tenderness to her breast. Continue reading →

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Learning to dance

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Learning to dance the two-step, quick quick slow; sus- pended between beats,  the kiss falling from your lips – let’s say that it was caught by One who had already fallen for you, who held it like a talisman, spinning … Continue reading →

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Martyrs

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

The commemoration for tonight’s healing prayers, held in orange, is for Blandina and Her Companions, the Martyrs of Lyons.  The Collect: Grant, O Lord, that we who keep the feast of the holy martyrs Blandina and her companions may be … Continue reading →

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The Stone Mason

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Only the mason knows the secret flaw carved into the setting of precious stones and metal, glorious, reflecting sunlight and the king’s delight, having built God a home, domesticated the Wild One, his prize. Inspired by the whorl and swirl … Continue reading →

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Mother of sleepless nights

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

You are the Mother of all sleepless nights. Before the light was bound over  to keep the peace till morning, you neither slumbered nor rested your eyes; before the darkness fell from sheer weary excess of hours; as long as … Continue reading →

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Unbabel

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Slab-flat vowels like a block of dough slapped down on the kneading board; sibilant aromas of spice and fruit from afar off mingle with crisp consonants. Syllables roll like oranges through the early morning marketplace; polyphonic strangers drawn by the … Continue reading →

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Graduations

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

A Mother’s Day poem for a grown daughter graduating college There was a time measured in the skipped beats of a sonogram machine when you were mine completely to hold; you ate my food, shared my blood, before the cord … Continue reading →

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Ascension (inversion)

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

Precipitous falling land & water at the shore where dust turns to clay, matter moulded to our humanity. A low fog confuses earth with its firmament; the mud holds its breath until the star breaks, rising in the east.

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