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Expectancy (After Christina Rossetti’s “The Thread of Life”)
Another one of my favourite Christina Rossetti poems is one of her least known – a cycle of three sonnets entitled, “The Thread of Life”. You can read the original here. In response to her poem, I have...
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Alive (After Christina Rossetti’s “Sleeping At Last”)
One of the last poems that Christina Rossetti wrote (possibly her last; her brother, William Michael, is unclear about this) was the touchingly simple “Sleeping At Last”. Taking the subject of death,...
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Memento Mori
Tenth birthday, and the Titanic sinks On a screen, the largest in The southern hemisphere, Drifting down beneath the waves, Wreckage waiting, submarines Plumbing depths to find its jewels, Then...
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Numbering Days (After Marianne Moore’s “What are Years?”)
Today’s poem – my last one responding to Marianne Moore – is inspired by her great reflection on mortality and eternity, “What are Years?” It was the first of her poems that I ever read, back when I...
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Catechism 7
What does the law of God require? Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbour as ourselves.…
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Les Feuilles Mortes
Yes, the leaves die as they go golden, yet this does not speak to me of death, as hand-in-hand we walk below bowers …
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Lent 27: Monday of Fourth Week
But whose victory? And how the victory won? A camel approaches the needle’s eye; Money glints in place of God… All these I have done since I was a child…
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Lay this body down…– Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day Three
What now? Death takes the best; the body droops upon the Cross. We look; the sting in eyes declares that all is done. It is finished. What? Are we done…
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Easter Friday
The seed sown in good soil dies, yet gives life thirty, sixty, one hundred times over. Some seed will scatter, be lost, when cares and trials come to choke, to…
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Catechism 19
Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favour? Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and…
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Catechism 33
Should those who have faith in Christ seek their salvation through their own works, or anywhere else? No, they should not, as everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ.…
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Lent: Emmaus 3
Too fast you walk down the mountainside; momentum gathers, yet of a false and fleeting kind. A fig tree full of leaves, but fruit sorely lacking, you see the glory…
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Lent: Man of Sorrows 1
What fuels my pride is nothing like what You gave up – true God, true man – when you bowed as low as bowing goes, as low as heaven…
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On an enclosure of bees in a honey store
The bee is not afraid of me, I know the butterfly. (Emily Dickinson) Busy as themselves, they bustle in explosion of hum and hive. Contained, less fearsome, they pattern out…
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Music for children’s choir
Headphone-bound, children sing as I round the corner. The nonchalance of late morning traffic greets a flutter of flight – black and white feathers – painting the street in uncontrolled…
View ArticleGrace, charm, a clenched jaw
If what Christians believe is true, then Gide knows now what all of us will know before long. What is it that he knows? What is it that he sees?…
View ArticleLent: Emmaus 3
Too fast you walk down the mountainside; momentum gathers, yet of a false and fleeting kind. A fig tree full of leaves, but fruit sorely lacking, you see the glory…
View ArticleLent: Man of Sorrows 1
What fuels my pride is nothing like what You gave up – true God, true man – when you bowed as low as bowing goes, as low as heaven…
View ArticleOn an enclosure of bees in a honey store
The bee is not afraid of me, I know the butterfly. (Emily Dickinson) Busy as themselves, they bustle in explosion of hum and hive. Contained, less fearsome, they pattern out…
View ArticleHow lonely sits the city
I did not see them go there with their flame to burn the city’s heart, the city’s bones. I did not see the past fall down in ash or hear the cries of covenant in pain. I did not hear the gongs of...
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