Your name
My name
Written on the palm of His hand
Look at a stone
Held in the palm
Each one is different
Each one is held.
Running with the Wind
It plays tricks in the lane
Like galleons in full sail
Trees high on the banks
Sound like rain
Cocooned between banks
Is like the trough of the wave
With every gate passed
Another blast from the side
The out run is fast
Wind on the back
With every turn there’s a change
Debris strewn
Picking my way
Wind in my hair
Soughing of trees
Then roaring again
Deep in the valley
The shelter there
Stillness is held
I can hear myself
Climb to the ridge
Meet it head on
Air sucked from breath
Big skies
Reveal
High building cloud
Towering above
A line of grey
Intensity growing
Another turn
Wind in the hair
I’m flying again.
Faith
Trust in the things we cannot see
Injection of self belief
Confidence to take
A
step
and
Move
from our comfort zone
To take a leap unknown
Resolve to leave things for
Another
Day.
Courage to ask for help
Wisdom to know that
That we need to worry only about the
Things of today
Tomorrow takes care of itself
Acceptance when we get things wrong
Recognition of infallibility
And human limitations
Understanding that these
abstract
nouns
Are as intangible as the words suggest
To unpick and define
As the complexities of the temporal lobe
Limited by cerebral cortex
Faith is when
We hope in a better tomorrow
Faith comes from trust
In love given from above.
Waiting for thunder
They forecast thunder:
Looking above
Marbled sky ever changing
Sweeping like the dementors
Of Harry Potter fame.
A stirring overhead,
Silent and heavy;
A world in waiting
Subtle changes
Building cloud then dissipating
Heavy sporadic drops of rain
From no apparent source.
Enough to release the intoxicating smell of spores released from the earth.
The orange sky against intense grey- layers of smoke grey
Bubbling clouds with cauliflower
Edges;
A Spielberg sky
Intimidating
Mesmerising
Forces of nature
With
Strength building
Into the night.
We’re still waiting
They forecast thunder.
Evening Light
Ribbons of pastel colours
Chalked across the sky
The heat dissipates
The colour intensifies
Above
The silhouette of moorland ridge
Stars aligned and waiting
A crescent moon aglow
A hung stillness
Dampness creeps
And night waits in the wings
Until black
Is chalked across the sky
Enveloping all.
Midsummer evening run
Grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.
Compline Service The Church of England
Quietest of evenings for 7km at dusk. Not a car, person,animal or bird . Whispering hedgerows.
Haiku : Poppies
Highlighter of verge
Of gateway or of the field
Brilliance displayed.
One day flowerer
A splash of red against green
Native of wasteland.
Resilient seed
To paper- thin endurance
Poignant remembrance.
This Sunday in the Slow Lane
A walk from Bolberry Down to Bolt Tail.
Lovely to be out in the air ( it was very windy ) and to hear the sea. The surging waves against the shore were dramatic and the clouds played marbled patterns across the surface of the sea.
When it rains
Summer Solstice at Stonehenge
The Heel stone marks the rise
The crown of the year
The sun in its meridian
Held momentarily clear;
Statistically recorded
Longest day of light
Waning days till Yule
Bale fires alight.
Mystic ritual performed,
Ancient Norse procession,
The light of Earth’s existence,
Mysteries of succession.
The sun reaches its zenith
Upon these ancient stones;
Our planet in quiet alignment
In beauty is honed;
Connects something intangible
Deep in DNA
Responding to those questions
Of Neolithic way.
Older than we can fathom,
None can reason how?
Spirituality reawakened
To ask the question now.
The orbit explained with physics
Around this central star;
The planetary alignment mathematical
Seeks order out of chaos
To be predictable.
Questions still unanswered
Evoke such mystery
Of time long discussion
Summer Solstice agreed
A spectacle indeed.
Whatever belief or none
Put science and faith together;
From this our wisdom comes;
The power of our Earth
Is drawn from things above,
But the greatest thing of all
It was made with love.
Ruth Partridge
Ruth Partridge 