Category Archives: preparing for Sunday with poetry

Schrödinger’s wedding

Until its surface tension breaks  upon the steward’s tongue – dissipating sweetness,  sweat of vineyard labourers,  honey of the sun-ripened harvest – it is neither water nor wine;  until the jars are filled to overflowing, until a drop is spilled,  … Continue reading

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Solstice

Through darkest day and longest nightshines the terrifying angel’s light,illuminating more than we can bear: the reversal of gravity proclaimed by a magnificat, revolution of earth and heaven on earth borne by the bodies intertwined of mother and child, full … Continue reading

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Signs

Though the sun fail, I will look for your light. The scarred and subtle moon draws tides high above our understanding of the depths of your mercy or our judgement. The fig tree, survivor, of your kindness growing peace offerings … Continue reading

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All she had to live on

As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. … Continue reading

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Jesus wept

To suffer the indignity of grief, that utter exhaustion of the spirit that has sucked hope from the air too long after the dew has dried; the kind of defeat that drives you to your knees and elbows, heaving with the ground, troubling the very earth upon … Continue reading

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Greatness

The body remembers, quakes away a frisson as though the cool river ran still from your shoulders beneath the treacherous sun, hollows out a growl as though still hungry enough to break your teeth on stone, suffer the delirium of … Continue reading

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For the hardness of your heart

For the times you turned your face to reflect in the silver of idols, the glittering teeth of that which dreams but which is not God; for the sake of forgiving, I let you go, so that upon awakening you … Continue reading

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If salt has lost its saltiness

If my salt has lost its saltiness will the sun still rise in the morning? If my fire has lost its spark will the moon still hang pale in the afternoon sky? There are days, Lord, not to get salty with you, when I might … Continue reading

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Succession

Arguing succession and success,was the prophetic failure of deatha threat to their ambition, or of what were they afraid: the banality of the cross,perverse instinct of humankind to kill, to crush instead of to create; or the riposte of otherworldly … Continue reading

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Get thee behind, Satan

A piercing crown of loneliness, seductive pain plays behind the eyes; a weary hand passes over as though palming pennies for the dead. Easier to surrender now to sleep and rise in glory than to die. Who then, though, to … Continue reading

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