Inspiring Poems – “A world … vast and meaningful…”

~ In this poem, nature is blurring the boundaries between the man made and the eternal: "...the green tideOf grass creeping perpetually nearerThis last outpost of time past." Hardly anything happens in this village in Wales: "the black dogCracking his fleas in the hot sunIs history" But the human dimension brings about a change of …

Inspiring Poems: “living souls…bright-faced as dawn” – R.S.Thomas

"My understanding is darkened,It is no gain to enquire;Better to wait the long night's ending,Till the light comes, far truth's transcending..." This is a poem about peering beyond the darkness, about seeking beyond the long night. Yet there is certainty that beyond the darkness is light: "Yet living souls, a prodigious number,Bright-faced as dawn, invest …

Inspiring Poems: “Lines Written in Early Spring”

  There is something about the simplicity of this poem that has always appealed to me...   I heard a thousand blended notes,   While in a grove I sate reclined,   In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts   Bring sad thoughts to the mind...             And despite the …

A Year of Inspirers 2021 (1) – love and illumination, and the desert – T.S.Eliot

For me, T.S.Eliot is the writer of time, of love, of spirituality, and of "the desert". He writes about the spiritual desert -"The Waste Land" - as he calls it in one of his most influential early works. Lines from "Choruses from The Rock" These lines were inspired by his poetry: Movements of Time I. …

Salutation

A salutation is a greeting, so it seems appropriate to begin the New Year with this wonderful poem by Thomas Traherne. These little limbs,    These eyes and hands which here I find,These rosy cheeks wherewith my life begins,    Where have ye been? behindWhat curtain were ye from me hid so long?Where was, in what abyss, …

Inspiring Poems : “What Matters?”, Thomas Keating

~ "What matters? Only the divine matters ~ And because the divine matters Everything matters." ~ Father Thomas Keating died 25th October 2018 ~ Image by Marc Wintrup from Pixabay

“Remember” – Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti died 29th December 1894. She wrote this beautiful poem called 'Remember Me'. ~ Remember me when I am gone away,Gone far away into the silent land;When you can no more hold me by the hand,Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.Remember me when no more day by dayYou tell me of …

Inspiring Poems – “What this night is long”

~ In summer It is delightful ~ To hear The birds’ song ~ But now Comes nightfall ~ Winter lingers And how this night is long. ~ Adapted from this medieval poem: "Mirie it is, while sumer ilast,With fugheles song.Oc nu necheth windes blastAnd weder strong.Ey! Ey! What this night is long!And ich, with well …

Inspiring Poems: “By a sunbeam I will climb…”

I love the way this poem begins with the way every day of our life begins: with the opening of our eyes... . I cannot ope mine eyes, But thou art ready there to catch My morning-soul and sacrifice: Then we must needs for that day make a match. . This poem, by George Herbert, …

Inspiring Poems: “Encircled in a sphere of light” by Thomas Traherne

“The sense of what he did possessFill’d him with joy and thankfulnessHe was transported even here on earthAs if he then in Heaven had his birth:The truth is, Heaven did the man surround,The earth being in the middle found.” . This is the last verse of a poem by Thomas Traherne called simply “Adam”. He …