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These poems are the fruit of almost 30 years of occasional writing. They were written as private reflections, or for friends and family. I hadn't intended them for public consumption, but people have told me now and then that they thought I should share them, so I have. I shall add new poems if and when I write them, though a lot of my words tend to go into sermons these days!
If you find something you like and find helpful, you are welcome to use it and share it, but please make sure my name stays attached to it.
The poems are posted in no particular order, but the labels - click on links below - should help you find poems on various themes.
There are also separate pages on this blog containing links to music composed by my husband, Philip, and to Christmas stories which I have told here at Seal in place of sermons on Christmas Day.

Thursday 2 March 2017

Royal birth

Pretty stupid for wise men, weren't we?
Without us Herod might never have known.

And now,
the slaughtered babies, cradled on pillows of blood
rebuke our wisdom,
staggering forward on their new found legs,
round faced toddlers greet the swords with their soft bellies.
And mothers, mothers, mothers,
hollow faces turned to an empty sky
and eyes like dark pits, filled with tearless grief
- "Rachel, crying for her children" they call it -
that howl , which the pitiless hills throw on from mouth to mouth.

One wild scream stands shivering in the still air.

And all because we assumed.
We assumed that a king would be welcomed,
born in a palace with fine clothes and comfort,
a happy event for all his people,
greeted with fanfares and celebration -
like all royal babies.

Pretty stupid for wise men, weren't we?

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