Prayer to the Beloved

Beloved spirit, who exists at my core  

and in whom I exist: I am thankful,  

in awe and delight at your closeness. 

Fill and take over the land of my life, 

and open before me the road I must go. 

You present me with wealth of body and mind;

I am sorry that I continually hurt 

and neglect other people, thinking of myself.

I let go of others' hurting of me. 

You are there beyond the places of evil  

where I stray, in denial and weakness;

you offer ways through, ways to grow. 

You are here, o Beloved,

always have been, and will be, for ever.                                          

To my Unknown Grandmother

You held me once, I do not remember –

I, a baby and you, an old lady.

In the worn, inter-war photograph

you beam in your monochrome garden,

gaunt and poor, stone-deaf, full of joy.

I think since then you’ve always been with me –

somebody has, invisibly guiding –

a warmth running through me, a lifting of thoughts,

hands holding me back from the fatal edge

to which I was drawn too many times.

How can I thank you when I cannot meet you

except when we pass, unremembered at night?

 

Do not pray

Do not pray and live the ordered life

because you ought to; go and live

to your extreme until you fail and fall

and find you cannot live unless

you pray and live the ordered life.

 

Are You Ancestors 

Are you ancestors or angels, or those I knew 

who died, who cluster round me in the night?  

You teach me in a language I’ve forgotten 

and when I wake, the early morning murmurs 

with your departing voices. Then I find 

you’ve left it all inside me – your will, 

your wisdom, light, your voice, your love. 

I spent the night within you; now, you are within. 

 

Grace lands

Sometimes grace explodes –

a blast of bliss

like the hit of a drug

and you hope maybe this

will last for ever.

 

But most times, grace lands disregarded,

a seed in damp earth silently settles

and if you let the pain of its rooting

penetrate you,

before you know it, branches of joy

and leaves of contentment

shelter the heart,

and in cool green shadow

a pillar of oak

stands at your centre.