ADORATION (O Sacred Silence)

O Sacred Silence

O Silent Sacrament 

Jesus Silent in my Heart
Jesus Hidden in the Host

Behind the Tabernacle door
Totally Present Within

Completely Still

Leading me on
Taking me in

I come that I may be
Silent like You

And Present

My Heart wholly
Like Yours

Amen

THIS AGEING GRIEF

i

Some people are great

At telling you how

To grieve 

Or not

Not this long anyway 

Only the Swan

Of the damaged wing

And attentive eye

Would ever allow this

Length of time 

These years

But she allows it

This ageing grief

That will not

Let go completely 

For that would mean

Forgetting

And forgetting is not

Allowed

ii

It is easier now 

Less harrowing
Not even dramatic

But its approach
Brings a sudden
Change of mood

Tears prickling
The edge of my eye

Pent up breath
Shuddering in my breast

Memory of that day
The preceding days

Last deeds done
Final words spoken

Not knowing
They were last or final

Memory of that day
When word of death broke in
So suddenly to rob us

Summoning us from
Our varied normalities

Drawing us in
To its abnormal achievement

No consolation
Ever will avail
This side of heaven

And if there is a certain peace
It is the deep silence
Of God at Golgatha

BOUND (Tanzanian Twilight)

Sunset in the dust-rise
Of the cattle coming slow
Across the desert plain

Before the herdsman
With his son and mother

Bound

From the stream returning
Past the silence of the grinding mill
Turned off

A whisper in the air

To the fire
Those dotted fires

Spread out and rising
To the falling of the night

Pink to purple haze
Then dark…

This evokes a longing

It  has wedded me
My heart to them forever
At home and quiet

This unified motion of grace
The smile upon their face

To The Quiet Come (Nairobi Prayer)

Rainfall 
In the evening 
Silencing

The barking dogs 
And screaming children, 

Drowning out 
The roar of traffic. 

And all that roars
And screams
And barks inside me

The traffic of my soul
The dogs inside my mind
The children of my heart

Are to the quiet come

In the steady fall 
Of heavy rain 

It’s easier to pray.

NOSTOS

It doesn’t last long

Silence in a church

Refuge for the word weary

Briefest of brief

Moment

Loud whispered aspirations

Louder vocal prayers

Local news passed on

Between statues

She pauses in front

Of me

Thinking she knows

Me

Smiling dementia

She is a book

Without chapters

Unbroken flow

Of words

Five hundred pages

Long

A faded grandeur

Battered sparkling

Red shoes in hand

Makeup-smeared

I hold her hand

Breaking the silence

Touching God

She leads me barefoot

In the Pavilion of Mercy

To a sort of homecoming

IN SEARCH OF A WORD

I went out in search of a Word 
To a place where no speech
No voice is heard

Only the sound of birds in the trees
Wind in the pines
A breeze brushing the clear 
Surface of a pond. 

And high on a hill above it all
Unsheltered in the bitter wind 
I could see and think 
For miles and years....