Gil S had a meme on her blog about poetry today and, although I'm not really joining with the meme, I would like to share this with you.
It was commissioned for the multi-faith chapel in the new hospital in Durham. I was asked to stay away from specifically Christian imagery or subject matter, and I thought something common to all religions was the idea of hope.
Hope
I stand beside the football fan, the student in exams,
The busy driver looking for a space,
The mother tucking in her sleeping child
I know consultants' waiting rooms,
The operating theatres and ITUs
When you are quite alone and all is silence
I am here
I hold your hand in darkness
I will never leave
Why 'Still Life'? Because, although our Meetings are (mostly) silent, they hum with the life of the members gathered in an expectant silence. Why 'Still Life'? Because I am pretty much bedridden, and I spend the majority of my time not moving about. Why 'Still Life'? Because, despite my illnesses and the curtailment of my former activities.... this is still Life!
About Me
- Heather
- After years at school of being told I couldn't draw, I gathered up my courage and asked my friends to help me try......
5 comments:
I did like your poem. It has a movement from the abstract towards the concrete and then a flow back to the abstract at the end. Poetry should move like a living thing.
I used to write poetry when I was a teenager, but that was forty years ago. I wonder what it would be like to try it again after all these years!
Thank you, Richard - I worked quite a lot on this one (although some of my poems 'just arrive'), so I'm glad you like it.
Don't wonder - try it! :)
I love this Heather.....and we all need Hope so it is a perfect subject. Thanks for blessing us with it!
I'm glad I read this.
It brought stillness into the moment.
Lucy
I haven't gotten around to trying to write a poem. It seems to me that this is a different way of thinking that has gone unused so long that I'm not sure I can do it anymore.
On another matter, I've been invited to contribute an article on truth to an anthology on truth by Quaker philosophers and I've posted an abstract over on our lately inactive quaker philosophers blog. I'd appreciate it if you would take a look at it and see if it makes sense to you. for years I've thought it a shame that professional philosphers have taken to writing only to each other and have almost completely stopped writing for the general educated public. So could you take a look at the abstract and see how it strikes you? Might the essay be something which you think you might want to read?
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