Sonnet

My heart has spoken.
Seek his face.
Hidden deep in our consciousness is his token.
As delicate a trace as lace.

The only thing that really does matter.
What happens after death to our consciousness.
In my dream I saw it as a definite object that cannot shatter.
In capable of descending into final darkness.

We are all children of light.
Everyone we meet in supermarket or street.
Is forever in his sight.
Yes, everyone however unlikely, we meet.

This picture of the conscious seemed utterly separate from my body.
Incapable of a permanent home in anything so shoddy.

Haiku

Consciousness is
Incapable of being
Always of the flesh

Sonnet (Psalm 130 KJV)

Beati immaculati, they are happy.
Whose life is blameless.
The swallow in her innocence wanders gladly.
Her marathon flight so courageous.

How I yearn for your arrival.
Completing your great pilgrimage from South Africa,
One day on the high wold I will know of your travel.
And hear your song so laughrica.

I doubt if I will see your slender stream lined body and forked tail.
You announce good times but half your numbers will not survive.
Here you will search for your insect snack, your holy grail.
Perhaps I will catch a sight of your determined crash dive.

How I ask do you navigate eight thousand miles.
And survive without complaint, like us, your trials.

Haiku

Come swallow arrive
Spring is here you say at last
Your song enthrals me

Sonnet

De Profundis.
Out of the depths have I called.
Out of mortal dark comes lasting bliss.
Out there is an open valley, yet this world is tightly walled.

My daughter’s thousand piece puzzle of Raphaello’s The School of Athens finally completed.
Yet two pieces are missing.
In life in the end we always are cheated.
On a turbulent sea drifting.

In the centre stands Plato.
For all his knowledge still deficient.
Yet the puzzle can still grow.
Despite failure hope is sufficient.

We feel alone, sitting in the dark looking at the sun’s rays.
Our fears yet to be resolved at the end of our days.

Haiku

We are all alone
In the dark seeking the Sun
Fears resolved by life

Sonnet

The one who knocks.
Will always have the door opened.
Life is a series of doors with impossible locks.
Life decays as soon as it is ripened.

We cannot undo these locks without aid.
But when we ask they just fall apart.
This soothing other worldly help is soothing healing jade.
This medicine penetrates our very heart.

I wonder why we seldom ask.
Do we forget, are we shy.
We know we have to do that to complete any task.
We just have to ourselves not lie.

We know that if our son asks, we give.
So why not ourselves ask and live.

Haiku

If our son asks us
We will always give to him
So ask our father

Sonnet

Go to Nineveh the great city.
And preach to them as I told you to.
On Jonah we should have pity.
What could he do.

We shy away also from the challenge.
We end up where we would rather not be.
Our fate is savage.
We refuse to see.

But after trial we muddle through.
We cannot resist the call.
We always of course knew.
Even if we have to crawl.

We will eventually pass on what we are told.
Everything else has long since been sold.

Haiku

We will now pass on
Everything we are once told
That is our duty

Sonnet

Do not babble as the pagans do.
Because they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
So is this prayer’s clue.
What distinguishes us from the herd.

The Our Father is so simple.
So powerful in its message.
In this great cacophony the merest dimple.
But we ask what does it presage.

It is this, he is there.
We acknowledge him to thrive.
We want to do his will here.
Give us just enough to survive.

Forgive us when we go wrong.
As we do to others all day long.

Haiku

Forgive us our wrong
As we forgive others’ wrongs
Again and again

Sonnet

Fresh and green are the pastures.
Where he gives me repose.
He protects us from all disasters.
For he knows.

I would never have had Peter’s certainty.
I am the constant doubter.
And will have a long wait for eternity.
Perhaps I should have been a more positive shouter.

Faith is a gift.
I am weak.
It is not given, am I cast adrift.
No, I can only seek.

I wish I could have said, You are the Christ.
Could I have been enticed.

Haiku

Wish I could have said
You are Christ, the son of God
Could I be enticed

Sonnet

I will establish my covenant.
No thing of the flesh will be swept away.
This will be our own government.
Whilst we pray.

We have only to create our own ark.
The waters can wash away our fears.
We need never fear the dark.
Or shed unnecessary tears.

If we we search his ways.
And seek his paths over the years.
We can be held in his gaze.
And avoid dread fears.

Remember his promise.
It is ours to miss.

Haiku

Remember promise
Covenants made for all time
And just for us now

Sonnet

Your light will rise in the darkness.
And your shadows become like noon.
We seek truth in stillness.
We will have the answer soon.

Home is down a narrowing lane.
Fast falls the gathering dusk.
How to baulk the curse of Cain.
Is life an empty husk.

Far away there is a light.
In the deep valley.
Barely visible in the night.
It is life’s tally.

I can only limp on.
For me a lamp has shone.

Haiku

I can only limp.
Onwards a lamp shines brightly
It is a tally.

Sonnet

Shout for all you are worth.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Be full of quiet mirth.
And do not unduly fret.

In the village church with distant country noises sounding.
Blackbird, far away, barely distinct singing.
Cows peacefully lowing, their shouting.
Tractor barely heard, warning beeping, reversing.

Wind gently sighing.
Chickens busily clucking.
Time just standing.
A branch brushes a window, nothing else moving.

Lent is for silence, not just denial.
To be alone is no trial.

Haiku

Lent is for silence
Not just lonely denial
Alone is no trial

Sonnet

Choose life then.
So that you and your predecessors may live.
Do not ask how or when.
Seek only to strive.

We are in a room.
Behind us a locked door, the past.
In front one unlocked, leading to our tomb.
What lies beyond that door, we will find out at last.

I was alone in the silence of the cell at San Marco.
Before me a fresco by Fra Angelico of the Resurrection.
Y a Marco se embarco.
And Marco embarked in translation.

We too soon will embark, that door ahead is ajar.
We need not fear, passing through this door will leave no scar.

Haiku

We soon will embark
That door ahead is ajar
Leaving then no scar

Sonnet

Turn to the Lord your God again.
For He is tenderness and compassion.
He is ready to remove all stain.
And free us from all life’s passion.

I am watching two programmes, one on the Ness of Brodgar excavation.
The other on Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland.
One three thousand years old but already concerned with spiritual contemplation.
The other dating from 1204, the last remaining medieval monastic island.

The film of the abbey is a meditation.
Silent save for the Divine Office chant.
The Gregorian chant is Joy’s foundation.
A delicately growing spring plant.

Today need not be one of sadness.
But of fond memories and gladness.

Haiku

No sadness today
Fond memories of joy found
Meditation

Sonnet

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great.
And that the thoughts in his heart fashioned nothing but wickedness.
But of travail came birth.
And no little brittleness.

People ask what to give up for Lent.
But why should religion be about denial.
So ask what already we have been sent.
Are we brought here for hope or trial.

We don’t have to give up something.
We can do something.
The burden need not be crushing.
We can put out the bunting.

So for Lent I will think on the joy of meditation.
An equally good way out of damnation.

Haiku

Meditation
It’s a good way to fend off
All damnation

Sonnet

Why does this generation demand a sign.
No sign will be given to this generation.
We imagine all will be fine.
All will be well with our nation.

We don’t even look for any augury.
And worry not that none has been sent to our contemporaries.
But there is a sign given by an old psaltery.
And this chant carries.

The problem lies now not with the Pharisees.
But with the don’t cares.
Not with those on their knees.
But those who forget the ancient seers.

But for those who can read.
The signs are still there to lead.

Haiku

For those who can read
The signs are still there to see
Just listen quietly

Sonnet

As long as the disease lasts.
He must live apart.
Wither our paths.
Where can we start.

Do we live with disease.
Or eradicate all risk.
Can we appreciate that we never will be totally at ease.
Only change is brisk.

I dreamt that my mother was waiting at the door.
Full of joy, I hurried forward.
Desperate for the dream to last more.
But to my sadness I woke up, from her I could hear no more word.

We resent all interruptions and the end.
But that is our fate and when we start to mend.

Haiku

Resent interruption
That is our fate’s vocation
Then we start to mend

Sonnet

To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday.
No more than a watch in the night.
A small bird had flown into the church today.
I felt her trapped, I couldn’t let her out of my sight.

I opened the door into the light.
And waited patiently.
She flew away, free now and out of sight
Today I achieved one small thing and went away happily.

Why do we resent the men of lesser ability.
Who have been given so much more.
Why should it affect our tranquility.
Why the remaining sore.

To give life to one small bird, a mere piece of fluff.
Is reward enough.

Haiku

Give life to a bird
Which is a mere piece of fluff.
Is reward enough

Sonnet

He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.
Ephphata, Be Opened, on this thought dwell.
And spare a thought our will so weak.

Our garden is beautiful.
But somewhere is the apple tree.
We cannot resist the pull.
We pick and our eyes open but we are no longer free.

If only we would accept.
And trust.
But nearby a snake crept.
And we fell into dust.

But the antidote to the apple is there.
We just have to listen and hear.

Haiku

There is the apple
We cannot resist the pull
To be no longer free

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Sonnet

For saying this you may go home happy.
The devil has gone out of your daughter.
How can we emerge from sickness’ valley.
And put disease to the slaughter.

A fourteen year old girl.
A remote grotto.
A vision of a pearl.
Mary aglow.

A small event.
Untold consequence.
Millions sent.
Seeking cognisance.

Candlelight on the river.
Of God a Marian sliver.

Haiku

A vision sent
Untold consequence for man
A Gift of Mary

Sonnet

Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean.
Because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach.
What matters is not the seen but unseen.
That gets us over life’s hummock.

What comes out of heart’s desire.
All those things we fear to list.
Starting with liar.
Including all from which we cannot desist.

But with most of us it’s pride.
Maybe ambition.
They’re all as bad as one another we cried.
It’s a hopeless mission.

If only we could lock love into our heart.
We could escape temptation’s dart.

Haiku

Lock love in the heart.
Escape sin’s penetrating dart
And pride’s ambition.

[Origen, A.D.184-254 — Second Reading, Office of Readings today]

Sonnet

You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind.
Keep in mind the last word here.
Not to view scripture literally but using our mind.
Words can be used allegorically by an ancient seer.

Origen was happy to use the Ancient Greek philosophers.
But he was right to ask for an agreed Bible text.
Everything should be rational to help us with our cares.
But all points to a living God and a life that is next.

Why believe in God I wonder.
Is it is because man has a conscience.
Or there has to be a first mover.
Can he be proved by didactic reason or by spiritually awed sense.

I do not know but keep reading.
Somewhere out there a message is sending.

Haiku

Man has a conscience.
There has to be first mover
So does God exist

Sonnet

Keep your family safe.
That they they may always be defended by your protection.
We may chafe.
But that is our election.

Why have sixty million enjoyed the Les Miserables musical.
Because it is a story of redemption.
It is not just that the tunes are magical.
Its characters face down bitterness’ temptation.

The hero finds love in a lost child.
The priest forgives his theft.
Even the policeman realises in the end that he should have been mild.
The young man recognises to the older his debt.

So much on television is just nasty soap.
But we need love and hope.

Haiku

Love for a lost child
And Forgiveness for a theft
young owes the elder

Sonnet

Lying in bed I wonder when will it be day.
Risen I think how slowly evening comes.
Worries whirl, emotions, money, rules, family, what can we say.
We try, they just don’t add up, the sums.

These concerns pass, death awaits, all silencing.
But think of the child in the womb.
Warm, sightless, barely hearing.
The travail of birth to loom.

The child cannot imagine the future.
Freedom, sight, breath and movement.
We doubt heaven and hell, we cannot imagine such bliss or torture.
Yet it is there real now and in every moment.

Now blinded by worry we stand on the quay.
Then we will set sail and see.

Haiku

Blinded by worry
Now we stand on the quayside
Then we will set sail

Sonnet

Fresh and green are the pastures.
Where he gives me repose.
Nature raptures.
Softly the wind blows.

In a wooded valley.
I walk down a broad flat swathe of pasture.
A verdant narrowing alley.
I dawdle, there is no need to go faster.

A hare gambles away.
Bare trees, a pheasant rises.
The sky yellows at the end of the winter’s day.
I am utterly alone, there are no surprises.

I am led to the restful waters of a stream.
It is time to go home and come out of this dream.

Haiku

Hare gambles away
A pheasant rises squawking.
The sky yellows pink

Sonnet

Dominus Illuminatio, the Lord is my light.
And my salvation.
We don’t even have to be right.
We know we have his attention.

So someone had attacked me, it was some lie.
What of it.
I just looked at Westminster Abbey as I walked by.
The intricate mastery of the East End, by delicate window tracery lit.

How I marvelled at the faith.
To produce so much majestic beauty.
Right up to the reign of Henry the Eighth.
And Henry the seventh’s glorious chapel as a final duty.

I remembered the psalm, The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom then should I be afraid, or of any strife.

Haiku

The Abbey, walking.
Delicate Window traces
Majestic beauty

Sonnet

And if any place does not welcome you.
As you walk away shake the dust from your feet.
We may be defeated through and through.
We may view life through drizzly sleet.

Yet we carry on.
And move to the next town.
Life is merely a loan.
We will never know the truth till our soul is full grown.

What you have come to is nothing known to the senses.
Not a blazing fire or gloom turning to total darkness.
We face so many impossible fences.
We are devoid of true frankness.

Yet I will pull through.
And so will you too.

Haiku

We face some fences
Yet still I will pull through too
And so will you too