Sonnet

The flock that is your heritage.
With meadow land all around.
We wilt under the demanding adding inbox, yet forget what stays from age to age.
What is rooted in timeless nature is truly sound.

Yesterday we lit a bonfire on the garden.
The smoke rose, the great mound of old twigs dissolved.
I sat in the cool spring day, the fire was intense, golden.
Time just was, who cares that no problems had been solved.

And that vast pile of garden rubbish.
Reduced to a clean white circle of ash.
So our own bodies and life passes and will diminish.
Cleaned, washed, pampered and burnished, then so much rotting trash.

But the cleansing bonfire was beautiful.
For what we have been, we always should be grateful.

Haiku

The cleansing bonfire
Golden beautiful then ash
Like our passing lives

Sonnet

It was the stone rejected by the builders.
That became the cornerstone.
Life entrances, yet also bewilders.
We shout for joy then inwardly groan.

We look back on our own life.
Youthful peaks of ambition and hope.
Descending into dark valleys full of difficulty and strife.
Now on a gentle downward undulating slope.

Best put it all in perspective, it is nothing beside the wonders of the universe.
Today I looked at the amazing Perseverance rover images of Mars.
Seemingly so close I could almost touch the rocks, a 3D picture in verse.
Yet these photos are taken so very far away, it seems half way to the stars.

So as I persevere in this quiet green valley of mine,
I think of the red Jezero crater and something half divine.

Haiku

Put in perspective
All life’s troubles up and down
Look at Mars’ surface

Sonnet

He is like a tree by the waterside.
That thrusts its roots to the stream.
Our life flows in and ebbs out like the tide.
Nothing is quite like as it would seem.

Are we really like the rich man.
Ignoring poor Lazarus at our gate.
Surely it’s not as if we’ve done anything wrong, it’s just he was beneath our scan.
And our eyes were opened too late.

But it’s true by then it all be no use warning others.
After all when alive we paid no heed to any warning.
Despite the evidence from our betters.
I suppose we were past caring.

But if we put trust in other than man.
We might keep our roots by the stream during our span.

Haiku

Trust other than man
Might keep our roots by the stream
During our long span

Roots dig by water
The stream flows gently by it
Waters its great age

Sonnet

Make haste and come to my help.
O Lord, my strong salvation.
As much as we try, it’s just not enough, self-help.
We can’t do this on our own, I think I know my station.

I’m certainly not worthy.
For Him to enter under my roof.
But I plod on wearily
I sometimes think of myself as an incompetent sleuth.

Always trying to work out what is the truth.
But the answer always eludes me.
It’s like a kind of persistent sore tooth.
The more I try the less I see.

So perhaps the answer is to relax and leave the door open, not worrying about virtue or sin.
And He might just come in.

Haiku

Answer, just relax
Leave the door open and He
comes under my roof

Sonnet

Everything they do.
Is done to attract attention.
They twisted as the wind blew.
To avoid any tension.

But am I the same.
Perhaps I shouldn’t say anything.
Make no claim.
To no faith or practice cling.

But surely if you bear witness.
You don’t need to set yourself on a pedestal.
Or plead innocence of any unfitness.
You can be instantly forgettable.

So I will continue to write.
However lacking in spiritual insight.

Haiku

Continue to write
However lacking in spirit
Or forgettable

Feast of Saint David

Sonnet

I am racing for the finish.
For the prize for which God calls us.
We will slowly diminish.
But we have had our chance, many have not even been allowed on life’s bus.

I dreamt that I saw, walking towards me, a great crowd of small children.
Then, in this dream, a horrible kind of remorselessly advancing ink obliterated them.
Now was their future completely hidden.
I was utterly shocked and numb.

These dear little ones taken in the womb.
Countless numbers of otherwise gorgeous babies, delightful toddlers.
I saw their approaching doom.
Hidden now for ever under death’s black waters.

But I saw salvation coming, not in a change of laws.
But in a change of heart in this great cause.

Haiku

Salvation comes
Not in a change of passing laws
But in change of heart