A tear opened up in the fabric of our existence and you walked through it into all eternity Leaving us behind staring at the empty air that used to enfold the existence of you So deep a space that all our tears cannot fill it So loved a space that our hearts now ache in…
A Gift For You This Christmas…
I’ve been working on something fun for you for Christmas this year over at my story site ‘The Long Walk’ and I didn’t want you to miss out… so here it is!
Dust and Breath
Breath, it can feel so light, so frail in these days that steal our breath away. We know it now too much. This fight to hold onto breath in a world that chokes it out of us…
Beginning…(Shrove Tuesday)
Because Easter. In the end. It’s always been a story. The truest of stories. The longest of stories. The one true story that began before we began, the living story that has yet to reach its full conclusion. This story about Jesus- not the religious one, but the real one; the one with Galilean dust in His sandals and the depth of a thousand galaxies in His eyes….
You Came: Emmanuel
You Came: Emmanuel Into the darkness, into the dim into the coldness closing in into our stress and whirring fear into our lonely empty tears You came. Into the hopeless stretching grey into the sickness scraping days into this world brinking despair into our greed that set it there You came. Into…
On Losing You.
On losing you. Strange how air can be so emptied out like a hole opening up where you once laughed like a gash and an ache in that space in me the space where you had always been. And now are not. It is not really a loss I tell myself. not a losing, not…
Drawing in the Dirt
We didn’t begin with a loud bang. We didn’t begin with a “Let there be- and it was so”. We didn’t begin with words at all.
We began with a silence that can be so loud. As loud as the sound of our own beating heart, reminding us that it is there….
Some Poems are Best Left Wordless…
Some poems are best left wordless. Like wonder.
Keep Moving (World Refugee Day)
It wasn’t your fault
that when you were three
bullets fell like rain
and blood ran down the road
flooding streets with pain
of a war nobody wanted
Keep moving
The Border Line (World Refugee Day)
The Border Line (World Refugee Day) The problem is with the seeing. If you never see their pain You’d never feel it Wrap around your heart, Quickening it’s beat. Squeezing you to act. The problem is with the hearing. If you never hear the sounds of deep despair you’ll never know it, deep within your…
Refugee (World Refugee Day)
Do you really think
that when they leave
their bullet riddled homes
they really believe in a world
that cares
if they live
or die
on the journey
Somewhere?
Questions, Answers and the Stories in Between
Questions, Answers and the Stories in Between “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40 An exploration of ‘The Good Samaritan’ story from Luke 10:25-37. Questions, we have them; identity questions, morality questions, existential…
Breathe
It was always going to be this way, this walk, this path, this cross. From before all time began His grace was there waiting for us, because the cross was there waiting for Him. Waiting for the Creator of the Universe to die for the creatures He created. He became our ransom so He could then become our peace.
Exodus Part One: Scars
Exodus Part One: Scars ‘The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’ Isaiah 61:1 We all know that feeling,…
Betrayed
She would run, face to the sun all shiny eyed, arms spread wide, wrapt in childhood mirth on this beautiful spinning Earth. Brimming deep inside the joy of being alive, being human being a child; Innocent, free, alive. On this beautiful spinning earth. Now she sits and stares, pain throbbing there, in all the…
A Carol for 2020
When all our breath is gone what have we left? When weakness after weakness drags us down When deaths are heaped in numbers on our screens And our ‘leaders’ wrangle each other for the crown. When a virus born of greed stalks in the night and Christmas revives the pain of all we’ve lost When…
With.
With. ‘“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him …’ Acts 7:9-10 ‘“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).’ Matthew 1:23 We don’t always see it coming, the hatred…
Vapour in Our Eyes…
What if strength isn’t real strength What if might isn’t true might? What if all the things we reach for Are just vapour in our eyes? What if success on the grand stage is failure in our core? What if wealth that you can touch is poverty in our heart? What if the small things…
Messages
There are some days where you just need to go To let your body feel the kiss of nature To find your feet firmly on the ground To feel the dappled sunlight’s warm anointing To breath in the rich concoctions on the breeze God has left His fingerprints splashed around us The birds, the…
Babel
Babel ‘Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.’ E.F. Schumacher I’ve heard it said that small is beautiful. But I don’t think this is a statement has often had much uptake…
When?
‘I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… …I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.’ MLK When? When you’ve lived flinching the scrape of…
Truth, Trust and Intimacy…Lost
‘Truth, Trust and Intimacy…Lost’ ‘For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth….
Mary’s Heartbeat
Mary’s Heartbeat Words written for a mother after the death of her child too soon. Hollowed out From the inside, Arms cradling air Over a vacuum where Your heart once beat close to mine, My heart now beating out of time Missing one small beat, Disorientated by grief A grief never…
To My Mother
Your’s the first heart beat I heard Your’s the voice in foetal ears Your’s the face that my eyes sought Your’s the eyes that calmed my fear. You held me close when I first breathed My tiny body heaving air You woke to all my frantic cries You sang your songs, You held my tears….
Freedom and Choice.
Freedom and Choice. ‘Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…’ Deuteronomy 30:19-20 Read: Genesis 2:8-17 So we have eight year olds smashing the faces of twelve year…
Called.
Called. ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made…
Loved.
Loved. ‘Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.’ 1 John 4:8 ‘We love because he first loved us’ 1 John 4:19 ‘love one another as I have loved you’ John 13:34 Read: Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:18-24 Some sickness is easy to diagnose, like blotches on skin or a fevered brow. …
Dust and Breath
‘Dust and Breath’ ‘The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life’Job 33:4 Read Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4 Standing on the edge of our own mortality can be the strangest place to be. Yet it is a place every one of us will stand one day. Every…
seeingbreathingliving 