Category Archives: Poem

The Desalination Project

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Even if
You can squish
Every unkind accusation,
Every ungenerous assumption,
Every condescending slur,
Every angry berating
And every turning of the tables
Such that you are the oppressor
Into a single grain of salt,
Locked away,
Dealt with, for now,
There comes a reckoning:

Grains formed daily
Build to fill the salt-cellar,
Build to salt the foundations
Of the whole edifice,
Build to season
And overwhelm
You.

Kindness.
Love.
Hope.

These wash, dilute and heal.

Blessing.
Joy.

These are received as healing gifts,
An unsquishing of deeply buried saltiness
Yielding sweetness.

October 2020

Mary: the one who said “Yes.”

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mary

Then Mary said, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:38 (NRSV)

Mary: the one who said “Yes.”,
Who was told not to fear
By a bright, heavenly messenger
Outlining God’s plan,
Didn’t fear.

The one who said “Yes.”,
Who rejoiced at the news
That God was to dwell in her,
Flesh in flesh
(God with us – but with her first),
Showed us how God’s love
Delights in humanity,
Lives with us,
Lives in us,
Chooses our poverty,
Embraces our weakness
And loves us,
And longs for our “Yes.”

The one who said “Yes.”,
Who was told not to fear
By that bright, heavenly messenger
Outlining God’s plan
Didn’t fear, but said,
“May it be with me
According to your word.”

May it be with me
According to your word.

 

Written after a dog walk in North Stainley on 13th August 2017, the Sunday prior to the Feast of the Dormition of Mary (15th August). This feast, at its heart, celebrates how Mary is inextricably and eternally joined to the source of life itself and, by example, shows us our destiny when, like Mary, we say “Yes” to God-with-us and let God’s eternal love – Jesus Christ – grow in us.