The holiness of slow

The thinner branches wave  like fragile grass
Bewildered by the wind so strong and cold
Like prisoners suffering from a cruel lash

The cat walks by ,the  little hedgehogs pass
So in my winter coat I could be bold
The thinner branches wave  like fragile grass

If only winter travelled very fast
But time is needed for the seeds  to grow
As humble as a  snail on its own path

We humans  too need silence without rush
We must earn the holiness of slow
While thinner  trees  still wave  like fragile grass

In the soil, the worms  pursue their tasks
Eternities of beetles move below
Humble as the  snails on  their own path

Why we’re here  this day we cannot know
Our souls soak in the  silent world below
The thinner branches wave  like fragile grass
We’re not gods. we suffer  from the lash

 

 

My sweet fate


The roses by your gate
Revealed my sweet fate:
That I would love you in summertime,
That my poetry would always rhyme,
That a dream of petals falling from above
Would drench us both with sunshine’s golden love;
That we would fall into deep grassy meadows
Full of daisies,lie on our backs.Swallows
Darting across the sky would see
Our shapes intertwined with bright buttercups.
Who knows when love will erupt
And carry us on its flowing waters
To places unreachable in summer saunters?
Into the eye of love itself

Jokes from the past

 

Why did Jesus cross the road?

To look back with anger.

Why did Jesus  save us?

Because his  64 GB SD card was empty.

Why did Jesus curse that fig tree?

It stopped him seeing across the road.

Why did Jesus not  use a bus?

He said it was unfair to asses and donkeys.

Why did Noah leave the Ark?

Because the two animals had become twenty  two.

Did Noah read books?

No he just scrolled.

Why do roads have two sides?

Because they are flat.

What is an enigma?

Ah,if only I could explain it!

Why did ancient people believe in salvation?

Because they couldn’t cross  a palm.

Why did the Pope sell indulgences?

Because there was a market.

When we say we repent,how do we know we mean it?

I’m stumped.?

If I go to Confession,will it be private?

As long as you don’t tweet it later.

May I receive Communion?

Don’t ask me.

My own jokes

36064355_1156369647836245_7488378942043193344_n-1Why did Jesus walk across the road?
Because there was no water.

Why did Euclid cross the road?
Because it was flatter on the other side

Why did I cross the road?
I was looking for the word

Why did the bus stop?
Because it couldn’t wait.

Why did I take a photograph?
There were no parabolas.

Why do we  have problems?
Because  not  many things are made of rubber

Why do we laugh?
Hysteria

Why are atheists so certain?
They have no doubt

Why do people go to Church?
It’s still free and they save you onto the Cloud of Unknowing

Why are mystics  unpopular?
They see things we  don’t want to know about

Is it God or am I schizophrenic?
Or both?

Why is it dark at night?
So we can  go out in  moth-eaten clothes to dance  the knight away

Late,late roses on the ancient barn

Once you drove me out to that old Farm
Before the Crab had caught us in its claws
We saw late roses on the ancient barn

We saw cars faraway like ants that swarm
Late October, nature takes a pause
Once you drove me out to that old Farm

What are the new lessons I have learned?
That cancer  changes lives,oh, what we saw
The late, late roses on the ancient barn

Grace is freely give, it is not earned
The  fingers of the clock   move with  time’s  laws
Once you drove me out to that old Farm

Take what’s offered, even though you yearn
For  other people, love, and  holy awe
 Become  the late rose on   this ancient barn

As we wander  here, no doubts can gnaw
Nor the tiger slash us with his claws
Love once   took  us out to that old Farm
We  worshipped roses on the ancient barn

 

My beloved jacket

14907087_802543296552217_5194649836108635800_n (2)I wish I’d kept that jacket
It might have fitted me
And underneath these arches
I still long to be

I know you liked the colour
You did not like plain grey
I hope your are in heaven
Dressed in colours gay

There the folk drink whiskey
And don’t need any food
But as we are still on the earth
We shall no more intrude

Be silent  hearing  love’s new mysteries

Trying to solve old problems  bothers me
When I’m feeling weak or undermined
As if I could rewrite my history

The past is never dead, but leave it be
Or with  present troubles it combines
Trying to solve old problems  upsets me

In  the  trees  I find tranquility
As  they  give up so let our human minds
We cannot rewrite all our history

Restrain temptation  , drop hostility
Use the fire of anger to refine
The soul and heart and  problems none can see

The Holy One  remembers all we’ve been
Aids the poor as   to them we are blind
Be silent  hearing  love’s  new mysteries

Then having  no real truth  to   cleanse our mind
We  hope  and long for patient, thoughtful  times
Trying to solve old problems  wastes our lives
Time gives new perspectives, we   revive

Mary burst out laughing. You are a weird person, the doctor said

First posted on July 29, 2019

pinkcatandsun

Mary went to the hospital  to see the rheumatologist.The entire hospital had been re-built and half the site was full of so called “Executive Homes”
She and Annie took a cab as it was raining hard.Although Mary was wearing her new green raincoat, she did not like to get it wet.
Where did you buy your mac,Annie enquired jauntily?
Cotton Traders,Mary admitted nervously.It looked lighter  than it is and Stan liked me in green
You already  have two trenchoats and a nylon mac,Annie told her.}
And Stan is no longer here
What’s it to you?Do  you want me to give all my money to the poor?
Well, some of it,Annie responded  anxiously.You need to pay your utilities.

My utilities!That sounds like something sexual that cannot be openly named,Mary cried
You are confusing it with urethra, Annie laughed
What is my ethra? whispered Mary
No, the urethra is a little tube for the bladder to empty itself  through
Isn’t  the human body amazing? Mary acknowledged using a cliche for better effect
Definitely, said Annie and I love wearing beautiful  clothes like velvet
Where do we draw the line though, between  looking good and giving money to the poor, tortured or victimised,Mary pondered

It is hard now because we can  see what the rich have and we want it.Annie shouted calmly
Or in your case  you can see all those philosophy books on Amazon and buy them with one click she continued.
Mary could see in her mind’s eye her living room piled high with books but if she were rich like Michael Frayn she could have a huge house full of shelves and desks.
Adam Phillips,’ room looked more full than Mary’s and he must want it like that

In the waiting room Mary looked at Wittgenstein’s biography by Ray Monk  on her kindle while Annie read The Sun.Soon Mary was called in
Hello, said Doctor Morse.How are you?
In the pink , she cried shyly.I don’t understand that, he  said in his kindly way
It’s an old English saying.It means I feel fine, but I don’t   really that’s why I am here
He looked at her left hand. and said there was no cartilege between the the thumb and wrist.
Where has it gone,Mary asked but he remained silent
Then he said,I think steroid injections will help.Would you turn your chair round by 180 degrees so you can put your arm on my desk?
Mary turned round and felt a bit dizzy
It’s hard getting older isn’t it, the doctor said in a tone rather artificially kind like a bad actor on stage and afraid of forgetting his lines or whether he was in King Lear or a Comedy
Mary burst out laughing to her surprise.
You are a weird person, the told her thoughtfully with  his glowing eyes shining like the sun over Lake Windermere in October.
Well, we can’t all be  exactly the same ,she told him logically
Then she had to turn her chair round again. despite her poor hands
Why don’t you have swivelling chairs ,she asked pointedly
They won’t give me  enough money, they doctor said even though I a Consultant and I have published lots of papers
Can’t you buy a second handchair? Mary wondered
No, it has to pass Health and Safety,Dr Morse whispered cautiously
I see.Well don’t  blame it all on the EU.
I love the EU, he told her.I hope Brexit fails
Me too she croaked sweetly
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes until his next patient arrived
I will see you in September, he told her optimistically his smile making her giggle inside so her body shivered with repressed laughter not fear

Miaow, cried Emile from Mary’s designer handbag
What in Gd’s name is that, the doctor asked nervously

Don’t worry doctor.I forgot to  leave Emile in the Waiting Room
Emile stuck out his head and smiled at Dr Morse
Good morning, he said  graciously.Is Dave the paramedic here?
No, they are  not here they  have their own  Ambulance Station down the road
Emile  began to sob as he liked to get his own way by any means he could
Mary apologised as she shook hands with the doctor.
Thank you for helping me, she murmured.I feel better already
And so say all of us

Just had to play

While the priest annointed him with oils
I played in the gutter all alone
I hoped to find the marbles we had lost
Or from the melted tar to pluck a stone

The summer was so hot the cobbles baked
Looking like a row of fresh made loaves
There were no fishes in the millstreams rush
Nor a place where bread and Saviour rose

I found a florin in the cobbled street
I found two marbles lying near a grid
I found a daisy squashed in a wide crack
I saw a spider hanged in its own web

To summarise ,my father went away
The Queen was crowned and we just had to play

John Rawls

Religious Faith and John Rawls

Extract

The thesis borrows Leon’s idiosyncratic use of a distinction between “egoism,” which is a matter of desiring things, and “egotism,” which involves desiring superiority to other people. Though Rawls defines sin as the repudiation of others—a refusal of the central ethical task of encountering others in Christian love—he treats egotism as the main source of sin. It is not our desire for material things but our wish for superiority to other “people that is the main threat to proper relationships with one another and so with God

The  feeling is the space between the lines

The spaces in between the words make time
To and fro like waves on the  sea shore
The  feeling is the space between the lines
Why  is there  desire for  many rhymes?
The spaces in between the words mark time
The up and down like music well designed
The abyss may open  when we  can’t endure
The spaces in between the words    become malign
Our lives are  tossed up on a  darkening shore

The tree of life; what power,what mystery

We are little leaves upon the tree
We  never did control our  tiny worlds
The tree of life; what power,what  mystery

With metaphor,it’s easier to see
Life is tender,see each leaf unfurl
We are only leaves upon the tree

Singing in the sun we seem to be
Full of joy until the storm winds swirl
The tree of life;what power, what mystery

Extinguished   candles   smoke at Tenebrae
We are blown to death however bold
We are little leaves upon the tree

Thus we sacrifice to God discourteously
Yet as the wars continue, we grow cold
The tree of life;what power,what  mystery

Who has dropped us from the hands that hold?
Who has stolen certainty untold?
We are little leaves upon the tree
The tree of life; what power,what history.

 


If  pride’s the source of evil. who can boast?

Those who think they’re sinless,sin the most
Be humble self, we are not human gods
If  pride’s the source of evil. who should boast?

We are human, not the heavenly host
We will sin with knowledge  and with blood
Those who think they’re sinless,sin the most

Trust in God  and on his grace we float
Being neither demon nor all good
If  pride’s the source of evil. who can boast?

In another’s eye seek not the  mote
Did  not God die on a cross of wood?
Those who think they’re judges,sin the most

Yet  gazing inward triggers over-thought
We  should not aim so high but call on God
If  pride’s the source of evil. who can boast?

No more the dreadful judge with heavy rod
Instead a  Jew we murdered  while he loved
Those who think they’re sinless,sin the most
If  pride’s the source of evil. why  the boasts? 

We cannot win

I still do not believe that you have gone
I wait is silence for the word  of man
But deadly  rings the knell, an answerphone
I still  cannot endure that you have gone
Now, in pain, I rage against the storm
In the wars of life we cannot win
I still do not accept that you have gone
I wait is silence for a word to come

How to be a tomato

img_20191008_142005How to marry an ass
How to faint on glass
How to Honister Pass
How to sign  the cross
How to eat and fast
How to polish grass
How to eat lip gloss
How to type on moss
How to weep and toss
How to call a hearse
How to write much worse
How  to stir a curse
How to be the last
How to lie and burst
How to win my trust

Waiting for the emergency services

Halfway  lost,my love combined with dread
I  could not sustain life, yet feared his death
He fell, I could not raise him to his bed
Halfway  lost,my love was nearer  dread
I covered his cold body with a spread
For three hours he  lay  like frozen breath
At great cost,my love  held his deep dread
I  could just sustain life ,yet near preyed death

Alone

The little words invented as we loved
Now have no other speaker but myself.
Lost, unique,my husband, my beloved,
These special words delighted us in  love
. In my speech , these words no longer live
I cannot use  them, spend our loving wealth.
The chosen words invented as we loved
Now have no other listener but myself

Are you messy—you may be a genius like the photographer!

Rydal_Autumn2019https://www.canva.com/learn/creative-desks/

 

EXCERPT

So it may be that having a little bit of mess around reminds us that the world is not an ordered and structured thing, but something that contains chaos and unknowns. This jumpstarts our brains into creativity mode and makes us remember that it is OK to be a little bit unconventional and think creatively.

This should show you that you shouldn’t really care too much about tidying your desk, your office, or your room and instead see if there is any creative inspiration there. Whereas being nice and neat and tidy is a good idea for some things – you probably wouldn’t want to have surgery in an operating room with instruments strewn about – for tasks that require significant creativity you should feel free to leave post-its everywhere, books open, and a coffee cup or two lying around.

Kiss a couple,  have a tin of beer

Watch fifty channels on  your TV screen
Read the Sun and see a silver moon
Knit  yourself a hat with cashmere thread
Take the milkman home and go to bed

Watch free videos, make a packaged cake
Put your lover in your bed, it must be fate
Change the sheets, I like them without lines
Let your cat play house with porcupines

Visit Urgent Care in case you’re dead
Ask them for another  bleeding head
Take tea while you’re  there, it is not free
Costa Coffee is the licensee

Adopt a cat and buy her lots of food
Wait for  her to mate and have a brood
Get a parrot  as a spy of sorts
Do not  tell your husband what you bought

Keep 4 boyfriends happy with your care
Just pretend that you ‘re not ever there
Keep them in compartments in your head
Never take  one near a double bed

Become transgender, wear a tie in bed
Call them they , unless their name is Fred
Kiss a couple,  have a tin of beer
Love is not another type of fear

Marry if you wish for we are free
To tie ourselves in knots of misery.
Have some kiddies, slap them very soon
For it’s illegal in  Dunfermline and Dunoon

Why not die a little now?
See what grace  is yours  but don’t ask how
Tell a lie or Dad will tan your hide
He don’t love  you nor your striped behind

Will we tell the truth, that Father’s dead
And Mother’s crazy,see where we’ve been led

 

Government Errors 1

birds12
Wrath of God

Doris Moansom says:

The Leader thinks the Good Friday agreement was to give Jesus an anaesthetic before he was crucified

Meanwhile Jewish people are warned to stay in  on Good Friday as Christians come out of Church feeling enraged.Not aware Jesus was a Jew

The orange hat

Mary was going to the hospital wearing her new magenta padded coat and an orange felt hat just like the one her mother used to wear when she went to church, although her mother had never had an orange hat. It would have been considered  very bad taste.And with magenta it would give some people migraine
In Mary’s hand was a long green handbag ; inside this  lay her cat Emile.
He was very naughty because he wanted to come to the hospital with her. Emile being a cat will probably not be admitted into the waiting room if she mentioned it to anyone; however ,she was hoping he would keep still.
She did not want to let the cat out of the bag at the wrong moment ,especially when she was seeing a lady doctor.
But the staff are so busy they might not notice that he is a cat and  before he knows what is happening he may be admitted to the hospital and left lying on a trolley in a corridor for 25 hours.
Unlike a human being, Emile is not very patient and he will certainly not lie prone on a trolley all night waiting for the kindness of strangers. As a matter of fact he speaks good English and could easily hold his own in a male ward. Nowadays many of the wards are mixed and would you want to wake up in the morning next to a Tom Cat. That would certainly hit the headlines .
Woman kept for 20 hours on a trolley in a mixed corridor next to a tom cat!At least he is neither a lion nor a lamb.
BTW Theresa May  our ex PM asked corridors to be relabelled as wards and  bathrooms  to be labelled as,
Wards for one with ensuite.
Where will all the other patients be able to relieve themselves…?
Maybe a bucket will serve or if we can walk we can go outside looking for a bush
Let’s pray it is not burning.I don’t want to damage  the Holy by passing water by it.
Though it is only humans who think excretion is bad
We would die without it
And why is Mary at the hospital again?Is it the Vulva Clinic, the Rheumatology or may be Psychiatric Unit where she may get help
The first step will be to give her a book about colour and tell her to get a hat in amore flattering one.Orange hats have never been popular with men.Blue might suit
And so say all of us
Mioaw ,says Emile.He likes hats