‘Poems from a friend’
Good morning,
To aid us in our companionship, two poems from a friend of mine, Sharon Black, poet, publisher of poetry in the pindrop press, organiser of creative writing retreats in the south of France at Gardoussel (all of which can be found online). Sharon was due to be coming to St Andrews in May to take part in a Chaplaincy event called A bigger picture – poets reading and discussing their work in terms of its relationship to faith. The event has been rearranged provisionally for Saturday 21 November, and Sharon plans to take part then.
I asked her if she was happy to share any of her work for a Companionship email and she generously offered a selection, from which I’ve chosen these two, adding a picture from time I spent on the Isle of Harris a few years ago.
West Highland
If I were to lie back, this is the landscape I’d become –
blanched tussocks, copses of pine,
shining lochs, station platform signs translated
to a language I can’t pronounce;
lazy fences, serious houses, two shaggy rams
by a pleated auburn stream,
alder, beech and dithery aspen,
Munros shouldering the lost weight of snow;
a blaze of gorse along the verge, pylons marching
over bog and moor, the ninety-six miles we walked last year
with backache, slippery from sweat and midge spray,
the craic of good friends keeping us upright
as we lost and found the way.
A poem of memory, as much of friendship as of landscape. I know that people are finding memories come to mind, unbidden, at this time. Perhaps, as we lie back, we could be restored by landscapes and friends of memory.
House of Prayer
The wooden sign saying House of Prayer
lies next to other broken things:
a tower of lobster creels,
scraps of insulation foam,
a chip of brake light, fishing twine;
the black, unsteady, long-haired cat
run down one year but rescued,
pausing on patrol
for mackerel off-cuts, open doors,
a lid of milk –
each object sitting unnoticed
on the verge as if waiting
for the sun to lay itself upon them,
a sprinkling of rain.
In the poem the sign saying House of Prayer may be broken, but as a reader I’d like to suggest that it can all be a prayer – the creels, the twine, the cat – a prayer of thanksgiving for existence, for our space on the earth, and a prayer of hope for sunshine, rain, and for being noticed.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Our University service will be online via zoom. If you’ve already joined our zoomunity for last week’s Sunday service or for Compline, you’ll know it works well. Prayers, readings and sermon come through clearly, Claire leads us in music, and images from households around the world draw us together as a community even in separate spaces. I’ve attached the order of service. You are welcome to open it, or even print it if that would help. I also plan to share it from my screen to yours during the service at certain times, especially during the hymns. I hope that works! Just click on the link below. We’ll begin around 11 am tomorrow.
Donald MacEwan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: University Worship for Palm Sunday 5 April
Time: Apr 5, 2020 11:00 AM London
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/125237520
Meeting ID: 125 237 520
We need a reader for the service to give the first reading from Philippians. Would you be willing and able to read? Staff members, students and others are welcome to volunteer.
Enjoy the weekend. Take care,
Yours,
Donald.