EASTER VIGIL

What gathering mourners these
Who standing cold, bewildered and bemused
Against the fading darkness of the night
Regenerate their tears of bitter loss?

What fire is this, that kindled 'gainst
The chill of memories so close and raw
Bursts not in yellowed flame or radiant warmth
But rather flickers only in the dampened dawn?

What beacon lit that speaks of resurrection?
What candle this, that ritually borne aloft
Dares to proclaim new life, to penetrate
The darkest space, and claim it for its own?

What tales of a people's past, what myths
And explanations, what pain or loss
Or dreams of liberation these, so gently
Now unfolded in the brooding of the dawn?

And so we wait, and ponder 'midst
The singing of the birds in joyous expectation,
How love's defeat, how evil's jubilation
Is overturned: explosive resurrection!

Easter Day
April 2014

PETIT DEJEUNER

Yellow green and gold
Finches chatter the
Early morning news
Amidst the misted stillness
Of the dew-rich dawn.

Then comes a Bulbul
To the terrace; and with a flash
Fast capturing from the air
A passing moth, she then
Before my eyes, dissects it
Wing from wing, and deftly
Turns and eats it whole:
Such is the brutal truth
Of nature in which beauty
Claims its sacred space.

So I to my breakfast
Make my pondering way
Past scented frangipani,
While high above, a hawk hangs
Motionless upon the morning air.


St Julian's Retreat Centre,
Limuru, Kenya
April 2014

HAMBA KAHLE, TAT'MKHULU

Deep rumbling thunder echoes round

The southern Malagasi hills as ancient

And primordial earth calls back Madiba 

For its own. Rains of blessing tumble 

Down in thankfulness for such a life: 

What hammer on a broken rock or surging 

Wave upon a prison shore could break a spirit 

So imbued with human dignity and hope?

Then overwhelming storm erupts

And hurls to earth its terror-laden bolts

That split and crackle unpredictable

Against a blackened sky: as did

The racist terror of a state gone mad

In search of unattainable security.

So did a people rise in stark revolt

And rising, with Madiba, paid their price.

Now nature's synergy of opposites

Conspires to breathe a cataclysmic

Shuddered breath, to open

Cosmic gates of love, and welcome 

Home this champion of a better way,

A way that will not offer hate for hate,

But rather bears the pain, and through it

Finds humanity's redemption path.

On hearing the news of Mandela's death,

In Madagascar, December 2013

All Saints Tide

A soft votive lamp
With flickering flame awaits
The breaking of bread

History murmurs
Whispered memories of saints
Robed in plaintive chant

Hints of costly love
Heavy hang on incensed air
As a low bell tolls

All Saints Woodham
November 2013

Pray for Kenya and Pakistan

Following the brutal violence in Nairobi and in Peshawar last weekend...



God of our tears and desolation,
You know in your own broken body
The savage pain of senseless violence.
In your dying and rising love
We hold before you the peoples
Of Kenya and of Pakistan:
Embrace them with your comfort,
Encourage them with hope;
And strengthen us to walk with them
The painful, costly road to peace.



28th September 2013

A Prayer for Syria, and more

God of all love and compassion,
We hold before you the holy and historic lands
Of the Middle East, where continents,
Cultures, faiths and peoples meet
With trepidation and with hope.
Grant to those who suffer, comfort and courage
To all who lead, wisdom and restraint,
And to us all a passion to work
For that deeper peace and justice
That is your eternal longing
For your whole Creation.
Amen

OF TIDES AND TIMES

Deep stillness as the morning tide recedes:
Gently rippled water silently gives way
To furrowed sand and shallow pool.
Small boats, denied their raison d'être,
Surrender to the dying of the sea
And take their rest, now flotsam
On the shore: conspirators with nature,
They bide their time, still-beached as crocodiles.
And time there is, around the clock face
Of this fragile isle where wind and sun
In turn mark out the fleeting moments
Of our passing stay, inviting us to
Deeply breathe the ocean's oxygen.
Such azure restoration of the soul
Brings from the Deep, deep peace.


Rodrigues Island,
Indian Ocean
August 2013