WALL PSALM

WALL PSALM

I stood in sun-washed Roman ruins
Astounded by a tree
Who gave me air as I exhaled
A blessing – as if fee.

A breeze came haling through the leaves
A sounding from the past –
As if to greet in choral heaves
Astonished spirits gasped.

(3 August 2010, Chesters, Northumberland, England)

BARLEY HALL PSALM

BARLEY HALL PSALM

The bells of York were ringing –
The Minster chimes were pealing –
As if for us – were singing
A welcome full of feeling.

The candlelight was glowing –
The evensong retreating –
The tables overflowing
The banquet room for meeting.

The venison delicious –
Potatoes – chutney – pleasing
The orange cake was nutritious –
Our hungry stomachs easing.

The Viking folks were hiding –
The Anglo-Saxons shining –
The Romans were presiding –
And we contented dining.

(3 August 2010, York, Yorkshire, England)

CARBON FOOTPRINT PSALM

CARBON FOOTPRINT PSALM

The gift of Trees is oxygen –
Carbon dioxide ours –
Emissions are reciprocal –
Relationship empowers –

Dominion is a stewardship –
Replenishment a vow –
One pristine Life has saved the Earth –
The rest of us learn how.

The Body is ecology –
Pollution starts with self –
The Preservation of the wild
Begins with moral Health.

The World has always heated up
And hardened back to frost –
The Garden thrives when we elect
To honor Who we lost.

(3 August 2010, Durham Cathedral, England)

ABINGDON PSALM

ABINGDON PSALM

Mark Thou my feet – Keep Thou my mete –
Thy Chapel can’t be far –
Please may I take Thy Sacrament
And gather where Saints are?

I’ll hush my Heart – I’ll take the Meal –
Thy Covenants I’ll mind –
I’ll sing the Psalms of Righteousness:
I ask – I seek – I find!

(8 August 2010, Oxford, England)

COLLEAGUE PSALM

COLLEAGUE PSALM

My time to speak seems over now –
The understanding halts –
The ears to hear and eyes to see
Confounded by my faults –

Until a kindred orator
Makes comments that connect –
Restoring equanimity
My fears could not reject.

(Friday, 6 August 2010, Oxford, England)

EAST LOOP PSALM

EAST LOOP PSALM

How can I tell Thy beauty, Lord?
How can I show Thy work?
There is no thing more lovely than
The glory of Thy world.

In spite of desolations, wars,
Trials, tribulations, hurts –
There is no act more holy than
Creation of the Earth.

(29 July 2010, Ambleside, Lake District, England)

FELLS PSALM

FELLS PSALM

The harp not just accompaniment –
The tuning not just key –
The plucking of the strings unlocks
Vibration’s poesy.

Harmonics animate the rhyme –
The intervals conform
The fingertips to masterpiece –
The power to perform.

(29 July 2010, Ambleside, Lake District, England)

STRATFORD PSALM

STRATFORD PSALM

“Touch Shakespeare for me,” Poet pled,
So I walked into Dawn
Along the road to Avon’s bank –
I had my apron on.

A pocket for my camera –
A pocket for my pen –
I touched the Morning with my feet
Surmising where he’d been.

(Wednesday, 28 July 2010, Stratford-on-Avon, England)

DAMSEL PSALM

DAMSEL PSALM

Our abstinence is knowledge, too,
Although a different kind –
Submission to a discipline
Can magnify the mind.

For what we lack and what we need
Can teach us how to sing
Of how the distant Temple gleams
Before the entering.

(Wednesday, 28 July 2010, Stratford-on-Avon, England)

BARD PSALM

BARD PSALM

Nature is the lens of God
And revelation’s cue –
Poetry’s transcription of
His hieroglyphic view.

Baptized, married, buried here
In Trinity of Life
With warning not to move his bones –
He sleeps beside his wife.

(Wednesday 28 July 2010, Stratford-on-Avon, England)

ARDEN FARM PSALM

ARDEN FARM PSALM

“An owl can hear a mouse’s heart –
Perceive its rustling feet” –
The bells at four – the whispered mist –
The coney’s soft retreat.

The Butterfly flotilla sees
The stained class window’s cross –
The Diocese of Coventry –
The Deanery of Fosse.

(Tuesday, 27 July 2010, Mary Arden’s Farm, Stratford-on-Avon, England)

TROUSSEAU PSALM

TROUSSEAU PSALM

Our True Love is investiture –
Disrobing not the point –
It’s what we share, not what we take,
We clothe, we cleanse, anoint.

Immersed in total otherness –
Reciprocal respect –
Apparel of unselfishness
That marriage will protect.

(Tuesday, 27 July 2010, London, England)

SERMON PSALM

SERMON PSALM

Who am I to be offended?
Who am I to cast a stone?
Stewardship for condemnation
Rest upon the Lord alone.

Measure meted – balance even –
Eye for Aye and Tooth for Sooth –
Make inequity of justice –
Underestimating Truth.

(Sunday, 25 July 2010, London, England)

COMMON THYME

COMMON THYME

Time forgives what we cannot:
Rattled swords and battles fought.
Goldenrod for battered dead –
Meadow sweet for broken head –
Butcher’s Broom for genocide –
Caraway for those who died.

(15 July 2010, Battle, England, Hastings, Kent)

INTAGLIO PSALM

INTAGLIO PSALM (Ether 12:27)

Selfishness is evident
When circumstance is new –
Mirror can distort a face –
But countenance is true.

Selflessness is secretive –
An image may deceive –
A weakness may conceal a strength
That Godliness conceive.

(17 July 2010, London England)

MARKET SONG

MARKET SONG

I frame my eyes with rosy Hearts –
My glance with Valentines –
Protection from the Glazing-Sun –
My Portobelle Designs.

The whimsy of a childlike Joy –
A view of hidden Glee –
This Light indulgence in my style –
A Pink Accessory.

(19 July 2010, London, England, Portobello Street)

OFFERING PSALM

OFFERING PSALM

Here – the Broken charity –
Here – the Contrite boon –
Here – the blundered Recompense –
Here – the minored Tune –

While the perfect Failure smiles –
While Pretensions thrive –
While the hypocritic Boast
Bargains to survive –

All He bids for Sacrifice:
Taking off the Masks –
Humble deeds and meek regrets –
This is all He asks?

Dare we try to hide ourselves –
Shamed by grime and greed –
Then Perfection’s Future Tense
Meets our Present need.

(20 July 2010, London England)

WATCH PSALM

WATCH PSALM

The little Clock
That has a Tock
Keeps Ticking in my Mind.
It has to Talk
Because a Cog
Keeps chiming when I Wind.

The tiny Bell
That has a Knell
Keeps Pealing in my Brain.
It has to Tell
Because the Tale
Keeps timing into Braille.

(13 July 2010, London, England)