Night
falls
early now
light dims
a single
leaf
rides
the stilling
air
suspended
lands on waiting earth
looks up to the fading glow
and rests
she pulls the curtains on
Category: Poetry
I’m recently back from a trip to Finland and Norway which was immensely stimulating. Before I set out I was reading some of the poetry of the Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge, available in an excellent collection ‘Leaf-huts and Snow-houses’ translated by Robin Fulton, published by Anvil.
I was especially taken by one poem which seems to me to have much to say about our spiritual journey. It is entitled ‘You want only to be’, and it goes like this:
“No root groping
in the hard rock,
no sprout, no sapling,
not the strong bole in the storm,
no humble branch,
no bast, no bark
in frost and snow-
no rising sap,
no force to grow,
no fruit, no seed,
not the leaf quietly
building its dome-
you want only to be
the swaggering bloom.”
Approaches to Prayer
The Approaches to Prayer website is sponsored by the Annunciation Trust. It is a repository of scores of ways to pray as an online version the book Approaches to Prayer compiled and edited by Henry under the auspices of SPIDIR.The God You Already Know
Henry Morgan and Roy Gregory, both part of Annunciation Trust, have edited a book which is a follow-on from Henry's Approaches to Prayer. It was inspired by their experiences of working together as Spiritual Directors at the Greenbelt Festival.
Originally published by SPCK, you can now read it here.