15 POEMS ......

I

Each letter rehearsed

Punctuating silence

Emphasising meaning

Emotions underlined

By hyphen comma semi breve

So we dare to risk

Revealing our heart’s truth

II

Seeking truth in the margins

Scribbled notes at pages edge

Reflecting nuances of meaning

Each word redefined clarified

Images of grandmothers

Holding me as a child strong

Names Cecilia Florence

Strong women deep memories

As the clouds of war lifted

I became for better or worse

A hope for the future of family

Of district of city of a better world

So we set our faces to a positive

Change of circumstance sunlight

Caressing new growth rising

Teasing possibilities of harvest

Always change and reshaping

Of the familiar into novel forms

Leaving the past behind shaking

Dust from my sandals a personal

Intafada leaving behind that which

Is of no value disbursed dispensed

Embracing in its place a positive

And welcoming future

III

Seeking truth in the margins

Scribbled notes at pages edge

Reflecting nuances of meaning

Each word redefined clarified

Images of grandmothers

Holding me as a child strong

Names Cecilia Florence

Strong women deep memories

As the clouds of war lifted

I became for better or worse

A hope for the future of family

Of district of city of a better world

So we set our faces to a positive

Change of circumstance sunlight

Caressing new growth rising

Teasing possibilities of harvest

Always change and reshaping

Of the familiar into novel forms

Leaving the past behind shaking

Dust from my sandals a personal

Intafada leaving behind that which

Is of no value disbursed dispensed

Embracing in its place a positive

And welcoming future

IV

Seeking truth in the margins

Scribbled notes at pages edge

Reflecting nuances of meaning

Each word redefined clarified

Images of grandmothers

Holding me as a child strong

Names Cecilia Florence

Strong women deep memories

As the clouds of war lifted

I became for better or worse

A hope for the future of family

Of district of city of a better world

So we set our faces to a positive

Change of circumstance sunlight

Caressing new growth rising

Teasing possibilities of harvest

Always change and reshaping

Of the familiar into novel forms

Leaving the past behind shaking

Dust from my sandals a personal

Intafada leaving behind that which

Is of no value disbursed dispensed

Embracing in its place a positive

And welcoming future

V

A child caught in time

An image those first unsteady

Steps towards independence

A soundtrack underscores

Each moment movement

As life’s song is rehearsed

Each faltering step risking

Grazed knees tumbling

A dusting down starting over

Hearing heart’s melody

A singing bowl lifts vibrato

A child’s song in harmony

A faltering step risked

Towards a future yet to be

A maturity yet to be realised

VI

Talking to a friend today

As he drove around

St Petersburg

There were insights

Shared hopes

Expressed for peaceful

Outcomes

Communicating

Through Zoom seeking

Peace for a people

Who will be rebuilding

For years to come

Brick by shattered brick

Until lives are restored

Fears of war spreading

Wider until the Russian Bear

Has recovered lands lost

Restored powers

Principalities moved

Neighbours landmarks

Redrawn to pre 45

Millions on the move

Are moving back home

Rehanging curtains

To windows blown

Out by missiles

Repainting walls in hope

That the future will be kinder

VII

Haikus ring out in translations

Of birdsong each syllable

A tuneful rehearsing

Of a haikus’ pattern

A cold edge to this bright sun

Green lawns sweeping away

Towards a woodland burial ground

Where life is celebrated

So we remember

lives lived friendships

In a setting sun

VIII

I was drowning

But the rain stopped

The storm was stilled

Hope returned and I was glad

Alheurin el Grande

This garden of God

Where I am watered

And restored

I find generosity hard

To give and harder to take

And yet in God’s gift generosity

Is common currency

All that is required as Jesus

Shows in his final words

From his throne, forgive

They no not what they do

The foot of the cross

Is rooted in the garden

It will in God’s time

Blossom and flourish

IX

Haziness of distant figures

Lost in soft drifting mist

Uncertainty causing doubt

Faces obscured

Having heard rumours

From the confident faithful

I search for evidence

Of a faithful god

Who journeys with us

But am left not in wonderment

But wondering as I journey

Alone to a place of doubt

Obscured faces offer images

Of a distant possibility

The impossibility of God’s

Image in a human face

God in human form?

Humans as the image of God?

Morally Spiritually Intellectually?

A questionable thesis

So I remain a doubter seeking

Answers as Arnold’s sea

Of faith withdraws rattling shingle

Mist obscuring distant faces

X

Silent anticipation waiting

For the performance to begin

Hoping the hammer falls as it should

That the bell is not cracked

Peals a true clear sound against nights

Shadows as darkness closes around us

Again and again the news arrives sadness

Takes us by the arm leads us through stories

Courage takes many forms and shapes

An elderly lady walks a corridor of canon fire

To buy food for her cat, children write diaries

War crimes are photographed catalogued

Reporters risk lives to bring us news of crimes

Of war shell shocked by what they see

So the stark tragedy of this ‘special operation’

Is played out until it becomes old news

Shadows as night closes around us

Staccato of gunfire explosions of light

XI

As I consider my future

I recognise uncertainties

Ageing stumbling forward

Towards a new horizon

This awareness of fragility

XII

Love them into believing

I was told at the beginning

Sparking vocation

Advice I have held close

To heart these years

When love and belief struggled

Spilling the cup Breaking

Bread Sharing an often

Hard won peace

Chanting psalms and prayers

In silent chapel darkness

Where grief is sung solemnly

This mystery of love celebrated

Angels voices harmonise

Songs of praise overheard

Keeping alive rumours of God

Rumours gossiped abroad

Shadows against a setting sun

XIII

I hear the constant choir

Of bird song in the high branches

Sweeter than the chatter of war

The threat of violence

The pain of dispossession

I hear the soft sibilance of bee drone

Arising from the hedgerows

Sweeter than the drones

Flying overhead spitting

Their warring breath spreading death

Creating confusion

The consternation and fear

That another hundred year war

Will bring the peace of Europe

To a bitter end as we struggle

To live freely with justice

Pouring from the tree of life

So I sing only the poetry

Of a peaceful future

Searching for the possibilities

That bind people together

In a search for a harmonious future

The land of God’s promise

To her pilgrim people

XIV

Birdsong fades to silence

As bombs fall over war torn lands

High pressure dominates lives

As columns of people seeking safety

Flee Westward where rumours

Of peace swapped from mouth to mouth

A disrupted chain of human suffering

In wheelchairs and prams and despair

Praying warfare fades to silence

So birdsong might be heard once more

A serenade of soaring song swelling

A singing bowls timbre calling for peace

Tone colours etched raised voices choirs

Nations singing anthems of peace

XIV

This sense of unease I struggle

With words whilst around me worlds

Collapse into chaos collateral

Damage wreaks a pale vengeance

Ground beneath my feet shudders

Trembling with aftershock

A barrage of explosive volcanic tremors

I search the horizon for my enemies

But they continue to lie low

Hiding in a blistered silent landscape

Words like truth and justice are formed

Silently my lips move shaping the words

But no sound is heard above the maelstrom

Of battle beyond the walls of the city

XV

Driving blind through moonlit dark

After the storms of a pandemic

Settle the virus of war arises

Dnieper’s waters divide West from East

I pray for a sense of direction

A route towards normality seeking

Peace for nations and people

Bearing the pain of separation

Knowing that as the past calls us back

Only in our future can rest be found