Psalm 84 v3
Spring. Swallows swoop, home once more
From winter a continent away
Seeing in their guided flight
Wonders which no pilgrims here
Have looked on or imagined in their dreams.
Small insect life, swept up from valley far below
Is breeze-borne food for them around
The man-built cliffs of sun-warmed stone
Built as home for (though it cannot hold)
God whose praises upwards swirl
Past mud-built nests, secure beneath the eaves.
Warm flagstones. Sparrows squabbling
Glean offered grain, fallen as it was waved.
Not travellers, they know each corner
That is safe from keen eyed kestrel
Or merlin’s heart stopping stoop to seize and kill.
They also know their market two a farthing worth
But are still content to be about
The bronze gates of this special place
Where the Maker of stone, bird and man
Is loved, worshipped and obeyed
The longed for place of swallow, sparrow, me.
Psalm 84 is a favourite for many people. It has special significance for our church - it s name - Threshold - comes form some translations of the Psalm
("( would rather stand at the threshold of the house of the Lord than dwell in the tenets of wickedness" v 10) .
Some years ago I had a strong mental image of the swallows and sparrows with their very different personalities and behaviour, but both find ing safety on God's house -, just as all we very different people do
Destination
A cavatina version of Psalm 84
We made camp at dusk. Cooking fires. Weary
Expectation.
Tomorrow the long last uphill stage to
Destination.
Sparks shoot upwards, seek to join the stars. Their
Aspiration.
Singing in God’s lovely dwelling place our
Exultation.
Worship fulfilling deep heart’s desire in
Consummation.
Swooping swallow, squabbling sparrow safe there,
his Creation.
Blessed those who dwell there praising in his
sure Foundation.
And blest too we pilgrims who, trusting you,
find Salvation
Dry places burst to flower as grace gives
Delectation.
Hear our prayer O Lord our God, our heartfelt
Supplication.
One day with you, not spending elsewhere long
years Duration.
To simply serve, not enticed by dark tents
of Temptation.
To make your light, your shield, your favour our
Contemplation.
To seek your presence and great purpose
our Vocation.
For you do not hold back Consolation
From those who make you their Destination.
September 2025
September saw the thirtieth anniversary of Threshold. It was also month when the theme for my online poetry group was "Destination" , as the next stage in our year long theme of "Journey." Pigimage is very much part of the Christian story and it all feel into place, helped by seeing "cavatina" mentioned in an online glossary pf poetic forms and the fact that destination is one of the easiest of words to rhyme
Three sonnets at Port en Alls
To eastwards curve of coast fades into haze
Shape, colours swallowed in uncertainty
Of where land, sea, sky keep identity
Separate from each other. This dying day’s
Light seems mergent with growing dark that lays
Night on prospects of bright eternity
With loss of all in greyed infinity
And we can only long this sad moment stays.
But from the grey strikes point diamond light
Reflected from that other truth, the sun
Answer that life’s thin thread is not yet spun
Hope beyond darkness of the coming night
Dawn in the east will yet make all things right
Bright present proof of new life yet to come.
Night. Uneasy dark lies dull across the sea
Pressing down the weight of all men’s doubt.
All forms that make life sure the mist blots out
Though in day they merely point to mystery.
No air soft stirs the leaf of summer tree.
Only the endless tidal rise and fall
Sighs on sand. No mournful night birds call
Their plaintive news of when the dawn may be.
And then long miles away a lighthouse gleam
Man-made brief truth of hope against the dark
Enough to steer a course against the stream
Enough to show good men may make their mark
Proclaim bright day to come beyond the dream
To rise with courage skyward as the lark.
New morning and across the sweeping bay
What was lost in mist is now made plain.
The lines of cliff sea’s chaos still restrain
That men may wake and go about their day
Unafraid to labour, love and play.
In homes and fields warm summer comes again
Surety of harvest, soon ripening grain
Store ‘gainst winter in firm built barn will lay.
Last night’s fear now seems small but no less real
Those truths of empty death that all men dread
Lightless pathways we know are ours to tread
Though now our little lives seem strong as steel.
But – light has come. Whatever lies ahead
Cannot dismay those whose hope is not yet dead.
July 2016
The first was inspired by a prolonged flash of reflected light on the Lizard across Mounts Bay as all faded into haze. The third was an attempt to describe hope in the following morning’s sunlight, and then, some weeks later it seemed right to add a nocturne in the middle. Port en Alls is also known as Prussia Bay
The Embroidery
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point”
C. S. Lewis
Rainbow vibrant, scattering bright sunlight
Colours of cardinal virtues captured
Deft needles made design reality
Embroidered beauty of true humanity.
Green generosity, pure love’s deep red
White humility, self-control’s bright gold
Cerise gratitude, diligence is blue
Quiet brown patience awaiting all things new.
Unseen beneath gorgeous flare of colour
Grey canvas holds the many threads in place
No thought given by the admiring crowd
This fabric does not speak its name aloud.
But without it no virtue will stand test
Staunch courage gives its form to all the rest.
May 2024