[From: The Last Journal of Gwyllyn]
Imagine, friends,
the gloaming skies,
the ember ends,
the grey goodbyes,
the starlight shining in the eyes
beside the brooding sea.
The tide comes in
to cleanse the soul
from every sin;
the white waves roll
and midnight bells in the belfry toll
beside the brooding sea.
The gulls are tired
and taciturn,
quite uninspired;
the waters churn
and in the moonlight softly burn
beside the brooding sea.
And through the long
and raven night,
the wind whips strong,
the stars shine bright,
and eyes keep vigil in silver light
beside the brooding sea.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
O Father God
Last prayer composed by Fr. Cedric of Ulster before his holy death in 1780:
O Father God of greatest might
who dwells within eternal light,
or rather you, being Light itself,
illumine eternity with Yourself -
I stand before you now unveiled
beholding where in life I failed:
Ninety years I had by grace
to seek your bright and holy face,
to serve you as I thought I should
and to do my fellow man some good.
But with the good, I did more ill,
sought my own and not your will.
I see it all: the grief, the pain,
the joy in others I have slain,
unknowingly, yes, at the time,
but now I know my every crime.
Repair the damage I have done
upon the earth, beneath the sun.
Every person I have slighted,
every good thing I have blighted,
wash and renew now through your Word,
through your Son whose prayer you heard
to make creation new again
freed from every stain of sin.
O recreate my little life,
bring new goodness out of strife;
the pain I caused, please now forgive
so eternally I with you may live.
Amen.
O Father God of greatest might
who dwells within eternal light,
or rather you, being Light itself,
illumine eternity with Yourself -
I stand before you now unveiled
beholding where in life I failed:
Ninety years I had by grace
to seek your bright and holy face,
to serve you as I thought I should
and to do my fellow man some good.
But with the good, I did more ill,
sought my own and not your will.
I see it all: the grief, the pain,
the joy in others I have slain,
unknowingly, yes, at the time,
but now I know my every crime.
Repair the damage I have done
upon the earth, beneath the sun.
Every person I have slighted,
every good thing I have blighted,
wash and renew now through your Word,
through your Son whose prayer you heard
to make creation new again
freed from every stain of sin.
O recreate my little life,
bring new goodness out of strife;
the pain I caused, please now forgive
so eternally I with you may live.
Amen.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Ten thousand years ago
The sun was bright and beautiful
and cast a friendly eye
upon the laden boughs of fruit
new-swelling under sky.
But ice encased the waking moon
arising from its bed
and in the warmth it shook away
bright dewdrops from its head.
They fell as cold and heavy rain
upon the gladsome trees
and drowned them all beneath the flood
of deep and trackless seas.
And now they sway in water-winds
but bear no more their fruit
in darkness miles beneath the waves
where they have taken root.
This happened on the turning earth
ten thousand years ago
and what bright fruit they would have borne
the world will never know.
and cast a friendly eye
upon the laden boughs of fruit
new-swelling under sky.
But ice encased the waking moon
arising from its bed
and in the warmth it shook away
bright dewdrops from its head.
They fell as cold and heavy rain
upon the gladsome trees
and drowned them all beneath the flood
of deep and trackless seas.
And now they sway in water-winds
but bear no more their fruit
in darkness miles beneath the waves
where they have taken root.
This happened on the turning earth
ten thousand years ago
and what bright fruit they would have borne
the world will never know.
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