Supplements For All

That was
A bit odd
Don't you think

The Saturday news
On
A Thursday evening

The internet’s strange
A purveyor of what
Right now is happening

Before it's happened, then
Bringing news half
A week after the event

My mother's letters
They too were often
A week or so

In the writing
Then a few days more
Until she caught the post

Except those times
When the advertisement for
The Shackleton High Chair

Or the flyer for the
Dolphin Walk in Shower Bath
Took her eye

Surprised most of all were
The younger generation
Odd that we should think

That desire belongs to youth
Or that we are uneasy
As the older ones share passions disease

Also they are happy, with the advertised
Collections, of China Dolls
And Porcelain Thimbles

Also that Saturday's post
And the other days news
Can be left unopened

On the sideboard; laying beside
The well thumbed
Weekend supplements

As the repeats
Of the previous repeats
Are replayed, over and over

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Belief Too Brief

The Lincoln
By the cathedral
In Lincoln Central

The registrar edges
As the concierge
Walks by

Pledges are snapped
With a smile
And a firm handshake

That idea of time
With time in hand

The explanations
Worked through
Thoroughly

Briefs well briefed
The confidence trickster
Sticks

To the resolution
The institution
Quivers

At the recidivists
Procedures

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On Leaving Chapel

Sit down beside me
No more to it than that
Not for the moment

You pray, I meditate
I go where happenstance moves me
But what of you

I hear you talk of strength
I hear you talk of faith
I hear you talk of belief

With eyes partially closed
I see starlit flood plains of light
Glorious sunsets, wild waves crashing
Old lovers and kitchen sinks

Your visions, please tell
Are they divine
Are they modern
Where is their relevance centered

If you wish take the floor
Swirl, smile, dance if you care
You have my undivided attention

For now I ask only your explanation
No more to it than that
Later? Why yes
Then you may be more persuasive

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Fifteen Minutes Without Fame

Smile of stranger
Only that we haven't yet met
Raindrops on the settled surface
Sideways shadow of standing water wheel

Prayer gives her a certainty
So much is clear from her poise
As she straightens herself from kneeling
Moves from the pew towards the exit doorway

Something here is close to approaching silence
Shafts gathered of sunlit stained-glass light
Footsteps are taken with reverence
I am driven to quietly write

Always this place calms me, slows me for a purpose
He holds out his palms, peacefully offers what he can
The river flows outside, it may be explained by geologists
Gardens, where herbs grow, may be explained by horticulturalists

But this time on earth
To sit in silence for awhile
Who ought, or might take credit
For my indulgence, for my happiness

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Benedictine Gifts

Before I begin
A word of thanks
For the lamb and mint hotpot

I am carrying out a sort of social observation
Why so many visItors, by what chance
Why the coach-loads of believers
From Germany, and Dulwich, and France

For myself the sense of midnight
Betwixt today and tomorrow
No time, nor place, to speak of

Five AM Cantato's
That set up ones mind and body
Illuminate with the security of peace

Cross-table conversations
Echoed silence from the pews
Walls free of decoration
Respite from currency of news

Before I end
I want to say Amen
Without of any more understanding

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