New Year's Eve Resolution

Be calm

Be patient

And be

Kind.

Be soft

Be willing

Undefined.

Let all

Be open

Unafraid

Yielding

Fragile

Partly frail.

Be simple

Sole

And just.

Complete

JL Dec 31  14:38

All In Turn

The year is turning.

The blackbird king

Of my summer garden

Clattered out his warning,

Silent now in greyness.

Yet today he is turning

No clatter at the Dawn

But a quiet chk chk

At the window

At seven thirty eight.

Later the garden

Flushed with

Finches wings

Not forgetting

A full complement

Of tits turned to flitting.

When all had gone

The bobbing robin

Flounced and bounced

And calling all the odds

Found no one to bully

So turned and left in peace.

The garden settled

Wind blown out

Damp and slightly mild.

By mid afternoon

The blackbird back

Chk chk at the window

Returns to roost

As the day turns dusk.

JL Dec 30  14:49

Salva nos Domine

Yesterday I caught up.

My soul is cast in fragments

To light the  darkest corners

Of the evensonging church,

Gathered high beyond the choir

By Vittoria's Magnificat.

His soaring exultavit

Echoes from the decorated apse

And I am gently brought to earth

Enclosed within the harmonies of

Per omnia saecula saeculorum

Grounded by the all encompassing Amen

And then

Then, then in the next room

The  mindless chatter of the gunfire

Broken bodies in the fields of blood

City streets at nightfall

Deserts in the full light of day

Jeremiah still crying in the wilderness

His tears echoed in the here and now

still the sound of sorrow, and of pain

Rachel's children down the ages lost again.

Is there still hope

When a Magnificat

Could be sung by all?

Dear Friends

This rough wind

Is brushing me

Towards the end of year

Tell me

Can I still touch

The smiling

Corner of your mouth?

Feel the cushion

At the heart

Of your embrace

Rely upon

The softness

Of your words

And know

I have a place ?

 JL Dec 28  16:22

What News

“You're here already.  Many  there?"

"The usual suspects, Gabriel, Michael

Raphael, a couple of shepherds.

"As well?"

"Gabriel brought them."

" Well I'm glad you're back."

"Wouldn't be anywhere else."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"What's that you've got there ?"

"Just a copy of the Guardian."

 JL Dec 27  12:06