“

Dawn Chorus

May. 4am. Lone blackbird starts to sing

Defies sleep’s darkness, cries joy to new day’s light

Ripples notes of hope, calls all live things

To celebrate the end of long sad night

Dawn chorus swells, though soon rooks’ grating caws

Gives dark counterpoint to dream of hawthorn white

And wood pigeon’s soft falling cadence swiftly cloys.

Daylight grows. Bird song begins to fade

Grey clouded day says only the memory will last

But as I turn to fall again to sleep

Blackbird voice returns fresh new song is made

To sing life’s melody is not yet past

New plans, new joys, new promises to keep

2020

But this year the dawn chorus has been much quieter - and not only because it's been too cold to sleep with the windows open. Others have commented on this too. What are we doing to the world God has give us?

April Rain

Rain has fallen overnight.

Its falling has brought relief

To wind dried soil. Seeds awake.

The winter wheat revives

Stretching towards the high bright sky.

The long months of sombre cloud

Gave way with March to northeast wind.

Special sharpness of the light,

Cold, clear, long winter’s death,

Brought welcome hope but bitter spring.

Night rain ended this prelude

To green flush of April trees.

Though daffodils are finished,

forsythia fades fast,

tulips already overblown,

Cherry branches blossom white,

Dance to the soft mirrored clouds,

Sing to welcome budded May,

Awaken hedgerow joy

And wild rose promise of warm June.

2025

Every year is different. In 2025 everything seems to started earlier and the spring flowers finished early. But the hawthorn is as bright as ever this year and the key *cow parsley to you non-Lincolnshire folk) stand straight and smiling in the road verges.

And now for something completely different. This was written a few years ago in the coffee shop at Dartington Hall in Devon while I was waiting for one of my grandchildren to finish their ballet lesson !

Coffee shop soundscape

Coffee machine’s strangled gurgle

Service bell’s sharp ping

Cups rattle

Trays clatter

Voices rise, fall, laugh

Dog’s claws scratch on wooden floor

Baby’s cry

Plate taps on top of pile

Swirling spoon tinkles in china mug

Crushed paper rustles

Mobile rings

Hot coffee soft swallowed

And after that not very restful sound picture a nice quiet still life.....

Ascension Remembered

“since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,

it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account “ Luke 1 v 3

Luke’s introduction to his 2 volumes of the life of Jesus and what happened next.

You say your road was over Olive Mount?

That you are Luke, the friend of brother Paul

Come to question us old men who can recall

Events of a quarter century ago?

Who saw him leave this earth, heard not “goodbye”

But “I’ll always be with you.”

Well …..

We climbed up Olive Mount together.

He had appeared as he so often did

In those strange days that seemed more real than time.

When he explained all we had not understood

Before he died and rose. Gave hope and peace,

Joy’s freedom, the changing of the world.

We sat on Olive Mount together

“The kingdom now restored to Israel?”

Heard “Now it is not for you to know the time.

Wait. Holy Spirit’s presence will come on you.

Fill you with power to tell all you’ve seen and heard

From the city to the world’s far ends.

We stood on Olive Mount together.

When – he was not there. Hidden by a cloud.

We still looked upward. Two white dressed men appeared.

Challenged. Told us where he’d gone. That he’d return.

Then we all knew that this was chapter’s end.

Our own world would never be the same.

We walked down Olive Mount together.

Silent. Sad our friend seemed gone but certain

His promises would prove true. The Spirit come.

Fill us, bless us, give us strength for coming years.

With him, in him, he in is us we’d go.

Be his people to reclaim his world.

We came home from Olive Mount together.

Past garden where we’d slept and feared and fled.

Crossing steep street where he’d stumbled with the cross.

To upper room where we’d seen he was alive

To wait and pray together, not knowing

The how of the changing of the world.

Now ….

See! We look across to Olive Mount

If it could speak it would confirm these things.

I know, dear Luke, that as a good historian

Your calling is to focus on solid facts.

But old men’s thoughts, hopes, feelings from the past

These too are truths of his Kingdom’s world.

May 2026

Many of us know the stories of the Bible almost too well. Sometimes it is good to try and imagine ourselves. one of the people who were there but who don't get a specific mention. One of the apostles perhaps who though listed in Acts chapter 1 but not again - Andrew, or Bartholomew or Simon the Zealot. There are traditions of course but no certainties. But Luke could well have met one of them while he was collecting the material for his 2 part work we now know as Luke's Gospel and Acts, around AD55 while Paul was being held in prison in Caesarea before the voyage to Rome. What we would have thought and felt coming back into Jerusalem having seen Jesus go to his Father?

And that it has perhaps put the "old, old story" of Good Friday and Easter into a new perspective to add to all those you already have.