It’s good to look outside

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The grieving one who never looks outside.

Suffers like a prisoner in a cell Yet they have some freedom to decide

To grieve, yet view our holy world as well.

To turn the eyes back to the lost and dead.

Is what we all may do in painful times But to this natural world, we must be wed;

And under suffering, draw a heavy line.

From despair, we rise to be renewed;

To see our friends and make our hearts feel glad. And look behind us with a gentler view

See the joys mixed with the loss we’ve had.

In the sea of grief, we’ll swim not drown,

And cast away lead weights which pull us down.

Poverty and inequality in Britain

Quoting Kate Picket from the Guardian this morning.

Elsewhere she points out that every £1,000 increase in household income translates to a rise of 3.6 months, or a quarter of a year, of life expectancy, regardless of which rung you happen to be on on the social ladder. She also suggests participatory budgeting, progressive taxation, citizen assemblies an… a

Through the fields

More complex than our mind is nature green

The River Lee still murmurs as it flows

Waltham abbey, Eleanor her cross

In the sun, the kingfisher still glows.

Through the fields the river sings her song.

There are grassy banks where we once rolled.

Is there still an innocence of heart?

The shepherd guides the flock into the fold.

In the abbey crypt the sacred dwells

Near the yew trees and king Harold’s grave.

Once there would have been the sound of bells

And in-our hearts we felt that Jesus saves

Let the world receive the humble child.

Who can see the gods in,this world wild?

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The mighty space above

The wide span of the sky on  darkest nights.

Oh breathless joy oh shattering newborn sight

The space above brings freedom to the heart

And of the stars, what hope this sight can start.

In the darkness, they bring distant light.

On this earth our efforts have brought blight.

Now there is no God to see our plight

Science and reason bring us thoughts too sharp.

I love to scan.

The universe seems full of space and might.

Who can know it’s breadth,  its length, its height?

The pain of thinking hurts my mind,sharp, sharp.

Never put the real beside the chart.

I love to pun