Mind your diet

I, virus
have some shrewd advice
for humans such as you:
if you eat everything
I and my family
will come and eat you.
Don't say
you haven't been warned!

Declaration of war, the virus responds

All across the world
your leaders are declaring war
against little me!
Enough to give me a big head
as I jump like a flea
from one resting place
to the next.
Pity your leaders
never thought
to declare war
on my ugly sister poverty -
well they did actually,
without really
meaning it.

Discriminating Virus

You people accuse me, virus,
of discrimination!
"Racial, social, and
targeting deprivation."

Look in the mirror, you people!
Just see how I follow
so precisely
the contours of
your own face.

Modest Virus

I am never
one to boast;
I just get on with doing my own thing
not unsuccessfully
you might say.
But, if I were to boast
I would describe myself
as "mother of invention"
stimulating technologies
promoting global conversations,
making isolation productive
bringing the future
a little closer.
Who else could do that like me!

Ultimately

Ultimately
we will come to the place
of unknowing.
We can pursue the virus
through science
through the vagaries
of theodicy
haunted by the question
"why?"
Camus chased the plague
through the avenues
of his mind;
came up with the courage
to live with the absurd,
to draw strength from
the game of unreason.

Job was tempted
to curse God and die.
But instead, rested his case
in the hands of the Almighty;
all that Job knew at the last
is that he had come to the place
of unknowing:
not an empty place,
the mystics have taught us
but a place infused by love
beyond our comprehending.

Living on borrowed time

Living on borrowed time -
What strange expression is this?
To whom should I pay back?
Or is death the remorseless
debt collector
whose visit has been held off
but a little
through pills
and operations?
Never mind.
Borrowed time is real time
to be lived through,
to be lived,
in a spirit of thanksgiving.

Mind you,
we are all living on borrowed time
from the word go.
Except we never pause
to think about it.

Symbols for the time of Virus

The writer asked "what symbols
speak to us
in this virus time?"
So I asked myself,
and from the depths
there spouted up
Jonah's whale.

"Why you?"
I ask.
"Why not?"
says he.
"I come at times to teach
those who run away
and those who fear;
my belly has plenty of room
for such as you."
So what can you teach us for this time?
"Well you could start by saying a Psalm or two.
Jonah found that most helpful,
but I recommend
making them up for yourselves –
much more relevant."
I know the Psalms kept the church going
for a thousand years,
but we live in different times.
"Yes – your insatiable search for entertainment;
nothing much I can provide on that front.
but I can teach you three fair things:
Faith, trust, endurance"
That's all very well, but I didn't
call you up for moral lessons.
"YOU didn't call me up at all.
I come when I come,
I go when I go."
Well what about these three fair things?
"Faith: grasp hold of what you have known; the one who gave
life will give life again;
Trust: the souls of the righteous are of good effect
many are walking your hospital wards;
Endurance: you know for Jonah, it was no picnic;
only when he learnt to step outside
the circle of self-preoccupation
did he see the "eject" button neatly placed
under my ribcage. Just remember
when you walk on terra firma once again,
you have been in the belly of the whale.
What a missed opportunity if you don't start over again,
over again to live the unspoken word"
The unspoken word?
"Love" said the whale,
and with a whoosh and
and a ginornmous splash
he regained the depths;
I look around, and all is still and calm
as if someone, somewhere is waiting.

Symbols in virus time 2

Next I found myself at home, still nursing the question,
Till I heard a kind of crashing in the garden,
A flower pot rolled across the lawn,
And right up to the French windows came
A donkey.
Quickly I step outside.
Who brought you here and what's your business?
I ask. – as if a donkey could speak;
"Don't imagine I'm a volunteer"
Replied the donkey
"My master put me up to this."
"Balaam son of Beor?"
I ask.
"Yes, who else.–
the dumbest master throughout all Moab...
and Israel-Palestine too
so dumb he needs protection from his donkey!"
Then what's your business here?
"I come to tell of angels, good and bad,
happy the one who knows the angel when she comes."
I see no angels here, I say.
"More fool you" the wretched ass replies
"Go look in the mirror,
what do you see?" demanded he.
"No asses ears for sure!" said I.
"But look again, and carefully!"
So I did look and saw rise from my shoulders bare
the sudden upward furl of feathers formed
in wings. The vision faded soon;
I hear the donkey's bray of mockery.
"Do you not see?" says he,
"you have the pristine power of good and ill,
on wings you rise or otherwise you fall
such is the destiny all humans bear;
you see no angels here
because you miss yourself!"
He kicked another flower pot flying
and plunged into the mists
that rose beyond.
And I was left to think things through.
And in this virus time, what can we do
If not attempt the angel task
of reaching out to others
not by touch
but now by prayer's intent
and spoken word across the void.
So when the evil angel does depart
We then may find ourselves,
and spread our wings.

Ascension in virus time

What can the Ascension mean
In these our virus times?
It can become our sursum corda,
to lift up our hearts to the heavenly realm
to see Christ enthroned above,
beyond the transient, ephemeral world
of plagues and torments,
famine and wars.
But if, for a moment,
we can ascend in heart and mind with Christ
in his glorious home-coming
still we are timebound,
clothed in the garments of mortality.
Like disciples at the glory on the mount,
we have to make our way back down again,
face old problems,
confront new reality.
And so I call Ascension a sure promise,
a glimpse of the beyond,
that where Christ is, we will be too,
raised up in our transfigured humanity,
partakers in his life of love;
for now Lord, we are here
just where we are with all its dangers
mindful of many others in their sadness,
thankful for your words
"I will be with you always,
even to the end."

Symbols in virus time 3

As Balaam's ass blundered out through the bamboo at the bottom of our garden,
I heard a voice call out " I will not be pushed aside!"
I looked, and saw a colt, a small donkey making its way towards our patio,
It seemed rather in a hurry and rather upset.
"I will not be pushed aside, especially by that blundering jackass!"
Said the colt. In any case, he should learn that he belongs back
In the Old Testament. I belong in the Old and in the New!
I have come to you straight out of the pages of Zechariah and Matthew,
dear Matthew – the only one of the gospel writers who realised I existed!
Some people criticise Matthew for seeing double, but that's just not true!
He saw me, and that is important. There I was alongside my mother,
trotting along through that verse of Zechariah, when Matthew zoomed in
and noticed me. 'Come with me;' he said, 'I have work for you to do'
Of course he brought mum along as well, but who was I to object.
And before you could say 'Jack Robinson' we found ourselves transported to
the holy city; and there we were together in the streets on the first Palm Sunday, the centre of attention! (Perhaps I forgot about Jesus... sorry Jesus!) But back to Matthew, he had
time for the littlest of creatures, because he knew Jesus and Jesus was like that too.
I think that is where he got it from, his attention to the little ones. "Are you one of 'the least of these?'" he said to me, when he first saw me. "Yes I am!" I said "Very much so." "Well you'll do then!" he said.
(Before he met Jesus he was something horrid and beat his donkeys something cruel!)
After that magnificent episode, I went back to the Old Testament for a rest, until right on this Palm Sunday I heard a voice calling me to join you "in your isolation." "I haven't a clue what that means, but you must know. That's what the voice said!"
Well that loquacious colt was too much for me, I couldn't get a word in edgeways until now.
"Well we are going through a difficult time" I said. The colt did a donkey yawn. "Don't tell me about difficult times" he said. "As if I haven't had enough of them!"
It was no use, that colt just had to do the talking. But I did get in one word : "Did you have a message to bring with you?" "I am the message" replied the colt, "the one unattended to,
left aside 'marginalised' as you put it, leading a parallel existence on next to nothing.
In my day, it was only adults who counted like my mum. That was because she was big enough to
cart along the baggage. I just came along in tow. So my final, my last word, of these few I have thought to share with you, is as follows: "Remember me and look around you in your world!"
Another of our flower pots went for a burton, and with the athletic speed of youth, the colt leapt right over the clump of bamboo and disappeared.

Symbols in virus time 4

If you have dread of nightime scares
you fear a creaking on the stairs;
but such a creaking did I hear tonight
it put me in the most tremendous fright.
A loathsome giant monster now took shape
And seemed to suck out every shred of hope
that lingered yet within. But no escape!
It seemed a vast compendium of scales and claws
It came a step or two, and made a pause
as it advanced, I lost the will to run away
a hooded eyelid rose, and then it spoke out loud, "now stay!"
"Leviathan am I, yet all will be well
for those who know me best I am no fiend of hell,
but leave my rest In ocean's bowers to visit here;
I have a message fair to bring, be of good cheer;
Appointed as I am by heaven's king
In times of peril to make known his will.
It is my task to stay with you until
You know me better, then I will depart
to your surprise leaving you glad of heart."
I could not believe my ears; can monsters bring
a message sent by heaven's king?
________________________________________

"Show me your bathtub, quick, I need to play
I'm weary at the end of day – what!
Have you no toys for me to toss around
In ocean's depths there're many to be found.
There my great friend the Octopod
plays to delight his greater friend, our God."
I should explain that by each passing minute
Leviathan had shrunk in size, the limit
of his playful stretch was now
scarce more than mine, and how
he turned round, splashing the water everywhere
soaking me from my toes up to my hair!
Chortling, he sang a psalm or two about the sea,
Happy as a sandboy in his glee.

But then I sensed his time had come to share
the message that he brought; now there
was room enough for him to turn around
and soon I saw him seated on the ground.
His form expressed a sorrow so profound
I could not call to mind the joyful sound
He made at play, as with a sigh
he spoke so sorrowfully :
"Beyond the sufferings that you see
Stretch far the fair fields of eternity
Now may you weep and joy seem far away
And yet remember me – Leviathan in his play;
All is not lost, and though you cannot see
God in his love sees you., and soon will set you free
to dance and sing like David sang of old
your halls of sombre mourning will be changed
to courts of gold."
"That is to come; now you must sorrow bear;
and I have come to tell you heaven's grief
and bring you hope in this sad hour
that joy will be beyond belief;
all is not as you see below
the way of sorrow passes through
to pastures where the blessed rest,
and every poor soul is the guest."
And so Leviathan would now depart
Leaving me full of tears yet glad of heart.

Symbols in a time of coronavirus 5

I was feeling really grim, unusual for me,
the light was dim, I made another cup of tea
and then I heard a knocking on the door
"Go away" I shouted, "or you'll get what for!
'No visitors allowed' or can't you read
what's written on the gate?"
In times like these we sit alone
and just await our fate
or so it seems to folk like me
when feeling grim, just grim
as grim can be!
The door it opened bit by bit
and there was my surprise,
my visitors:
a whale, furnished with legs and much reduced in size,
two donkeys and a giant lizard
stood outside
observing space between, two metres wide...
until the door was open, then with a rush
they came inside with many a shove and push.
"What nonsense now" I thought,
and asked them what they sought.
"We've come to comfort you" they said
"We thought you might be ill in bed
and so we come to make our call and give
some timely counsel, so that you may live
and see your birthdays round for years to come;
and when we've finished, we will make for home.
Well "home" for them, what could it be
unless a giant menagerie?
The whale was first, he fixed me with his eye
"Now what sin hast thou done – don't lie
for we have means to force a just reply!
The ass of Balaam interrupted then
to say that sin clings close to men
as do their clothes, and no advice
can rid them from pestiferous lice
by which he meant there's no escape
from evil thoughts which clothe a man;
he knows not how to struggle, if he can.
Then jumped right in the fat young colt
and cried "just bring a halt
to these perambulations!
I am the one who understands his cogitations
better than you all; he does accuse himself
that is enough.
Why trouble you to make his life more tough?
A month or two of grubbing in a field
should surely from this man repentance yield,
I've known men draw great consolation
from periods of isolation;
this is the price he has to pay
for pleasures had another day. "
At last the lizard spoke "fools are you all,
and seeming dumb beyond recall
this man is suffering from the Fall
no human art can mend his face
all that can mend is heavenly grace."
It seemed as then the house began to quake
the roof, the walls, the doors began to shake
and then a voice came from above
"Do you forget I am the God of love?
my love can win, and far outrun the Law
from being rich, I make myself so poor
the poorest souls will find me by their side
wake up and see, prepare for Eastertide! "

My visitors had vanished all away
and night had gone, and dawn proclaimed the day.

Symbols in time of virus 6

It was the middle of the night, and suddenly I was awake.
Above the foot of the bed , I saw hovering a hand,
white, illuminated in the moonlight streaming through the window.
Just a hand. It seemed to beckon and I followed in my mind's eye...
Travelling through space and time the hand led me on,
Into a vast and rich banqueting chamber, where king and nobles enjoyed
their feast with vessels of gold. Wine flowed plentifully. They toasted each other with oaths,
proudly boasting of their plunder, and cursing Israel's people and their God.
And then they saw the hand, and were all stilled with fear and dread,
and on the wall above the table of feasting the hand began to write in strange letters:
MENE,
MENE.
TEKEL
U-PHARSIN
which, being interpreted means : Numbered : God has counted up the resources of your kingdom;
Numbered : and its days are numbered; Tekel : God has weighed you in his balance and found you are worth nothing; Peres : you are scattered among your enemies who will take all that you have.
And in that night I saw the great king, Belshazzar, slain.
The moving hand moved on, I followed again through time and space.
Through centuries and centuries we moved until we stopped above a squalid and vast settlement, surrounded by armed guards, crammed with women and children and some men; the hand pointed and a voice inside me said "see these people who have fled from guns and war, hear their crying out and weeping in the streets; hear the retching and coughing of the dying, son of man say to them "Is there anyone to help?" so I asked, and the answer came "none."
Again the hand led me on across seas and mountains and then down to India and the poorest quarter of Bombay; there I saw the dying caring for the dead. The hand pointed to the distant funeral pyres, and I wondered who would have strength to make that journey, and the voice within me said "ask these dying, is there anyone to help?" so I asked, and the answer came "none."
Then the hand moved on and I followed. Back through time and space we moved until we found the holy city, and there outside the walls on a hill stood three crosses with suffering men.
But when I looked, the figure on the central cross seemed strangely changed; instead of human form I saw, if my eyes did not deceive, a glowing question mark at one moment, and a golden serpent at the next. And so they changed back and forth.
And then the hand divided itself into many hands, each of which went to find its place above the richest nations of the world.
And the voice inside me said " Mene, Mene, Tekel, U-Pharsin; the One is here for the healing of the nations, but who will listen? Therefore, unless you hear the question and attend, unless you follow the path of healing and of life, your fate is known to you."
But then I looked again at the figure on the cross, and in my mind's eye it resolved itself to human form, and though the hands were hard fixed with nails, the arms seemed straining to embrace the world.
And then I found myself back upon my bed, and the small olivewood cross on the table beside it glowed just for an instant.

Prayer poems

A locked church

Ah my dear Lord, the church is locked
but let my heart be open to your presence;
there let us make, you and I,
your Easter garden;
plant it with flowers,
and let the heavy stone be rolled away.

A locked church, 2

Unlock my heart, three-personed God
and with your strength
secure the way;
now push aside
all that resists your might
for only then will I be changed
and see afresh
your true, unfathomless,
gentleness.
After John Donne

News

Attached to news
it curls its tendrils round our lives
Invades and squeezes,
gradually distorts.

Christ is our news
who makes for us each day
all things new.

Attached to him,
we find him close to us,
like breath within us
bringing life to every part.

The Interim

Jesus of carpenter's shop
with plane and chisel, hammer and nails,
getting on with things without fuss
doing the necessary,
bearing on shoulder
the plank's weight shared with Joseph;
sweeping aside the sawdust,
delighting in light reflecting
off a polished surface.
Jesus, called by Mary to eat
taking his inner prayer with him to table
breaking bread with family
putting down for now plane and chisel
Hammer and nails.

A Lenten Antiphon for our times

Advancing from tedium to Te Deum we praise thee, O Lord!

Journey into space

"Journey into space"  BBC
was all the rage when I was ten;
now through my laptop screen
(a concept unknown then)
I enter daily a different domain,
travel into communications
otherwise impossible,
orbit the globe;
at the press of a key
space is unlocked for me
while under "lockdown."

Eden reborn

Paradise is a garden, Eden reborn;
Let's work in our gardens,
digging towards Easter,
Hoping to a catch a glimpse there
of the gardener.

To an African Violet

A wonder you survived
our many absences!
I quite expected on return
to find you lifeless,
shrivelled up.
But somewhere within your African heart
you know endurance.
Sunlover that you are,
your leaves now are parted;
a bud seeks its way to worship
showing the path for others.

Little woodlouse

Little woodlouse
Crawling around
in quite the wrong place indoors;
I must have transplanted you
to join the seeds I am sowing.
So now out you go,
onto the outside gravel
quite a shock to your system
landing with a bump.
No living things can
take a straightforward life
for granted.

Syria

If I could pray for Syria
my tears would never cease
as it is, my cheeks are dry
because
I don't know how to begin.

Meanwhile

A comfortable life
And plenty of money
that is what people are after
these days;
heaven slowly evaporates
only to be glimpsed
in fragments of beauty;
meanwhile
hell resurrects itself.

An Easter Garden

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard"
said Solomon,
"Consider his ways and be wise!"
hoping to encourage the labourers
of his building team,
erecting the Temple,
with a little moral instruction
alongside the whip.
He might just as well say to me
"Go to the bee, old buzzard"
for in our times the bees I see are few
and incredibly busy, looking worn out
pollinating away – it is my hope –
on our nearby pear tree.
The scarceness of the bees
brings me a sense of fear
in what I hear from other places
evidence of multiple disgraces,
taking for granted the bounty of creation
closing eyes against a coming desolation.

Jonah speaks

I, Jonah, have had enough....
How long will I be
in the belly of this stinking fish ?
After forty days and nights
I thought I would be free
But this – it feels like an eternity.

I have been cheated of my very substance
My eyes no longer see amid the gloom
And all that's left to me is my own doom.
and yes I even made up one or two
Plenty full of anger were my verses,
made up of pleading and of curses.

I have run out of words
my voice is hoarse
my eyes are dry
from tears unshed
am I better off alive
or dead?

And yet, I still am here
And living in the fear
And dread of One
Who will not leave me quite alone.

When will your mercies come again ?
Renew my life with tears and rain
Refresh my inner being with your grace
Remove me from the wilderness
of this foul place !

A voice speaks

The threshold
of your rebirth
now draws near;
do not despair
the shore of life awaits you,
there you will begin anew;
see there is fire and food upon the beach,
imagine, it is nearly within reach.
Ahead of you is joy and company again
where mirth will wipe away
the memory of this pain
but leave you with the learning you have gained
despite yourself.
Enough, take heart and be no longer dumb
and learn the song that readies you
for life that is to come.