Being

It’s been a while.

We’ve been ok, just occupied with the challenges and joys of what life looks like for us at the moment. We’ve both spent time in reflection and contemplation, some solo and some in the company of our friends at Chichester Cathedral.

It’s a fruitful thing for us to do and for David has provided the incentive to write more poetry.

                       Being

Creation was the first incarnation,

Spirit begat energy and matter

Compressed and exploded

Beyond mortal explanation.

Entities belong in Being,

Intricately connected,

But humans are bought and brought

In Consciousness of All.

“Take eat, this is my body, broken for you,”

Thus are we directed.

The second incarnation

Confirmed by actualisation,

Eat, and acknowledge interconnection,

And drink His wine in memory

And re-enactment

Until Oneness returns.

We are forgiven, shriven,

As much as we forgive.

To truly know this

Love, contemplate,

Reflect, and think.

And meditate.

Eating and drinking Bread

Is what we need,

To live.

© David Cooke 2024

Evensong

Last week we were walking back  from Compline, an evening service for Holy Week at the Cathedral, and had just reached the road on which we live, when this happened. It was a very special moment.

Evensong

A robin singing in the night

From a greening tree, a lamp-lit stage,

Stilling our feet, so strong,

There by the churchyard’s corner;

Clearly above, beyond

The passing intermittent traffic

Of a dusk-time street;

There, here, then, but also now,

A triumph of spring-time song.

Robin, robin, you little wondrous thing!

I don’t know why you sing.

Of course I’ve read what others say,

But all these answers fade away

At the surprise, the sound, the song.

We stop and listen.

This moment’s moment

Carries us along.

© David Cooke 2022

We’ve finally emerged

Like underground creatures leaving their burrow, sniffing the air and exploring their surroundings again, we’ve finally emerged back into our world. The second long lockdown was much harder for us than the first. Several factors were involved. We both faced health challenges which came out …

Lockdown: how’s it been going?

 

Chichester City

The dormant city settles,

A dumpy woman plumping cushions on a sofa

For a sit-down and a cup of tea,

A welcome break before a grunt

And into action once again;

Lighting the streets and dealing with the waste,

Housing frail bodies in her brick and stone

And lightly marking her inhabitants

With names and drains and history.

 

She claims to be indifferent

To her charges, but other grimier cities

Do not believe her,

But are too nice to say it,

Nor will they stay for supper,

Winking at each other while they nod at her

And take another biscuit, with yet another cuppa.

 

But when the break should have been over,

Instead, all has been slowed,

And Lockdown stills her paces.

Her human brawling sprawling throngs,

The caterwauling and the songs

No longer congregate in parks and offices

Or scramble for their sports and entertainment,

Nor skitter to and fro

To fill her designated places;

Unprecedented!

 

Her shuttered shops and doors

And eerie empty spaces

With notices on windows,

Describe her deprivation.

 

Her visitors have gone,

Each shakes a head at their predicament,

Secretly pleased they do not care as much

As Novio Magus.

She folds her feet up on the sofa,

Tucks hand on double chin

And ponders for a daydream season.

 

She knows a strange disquiet.

Without her little humans,

Her life has little reason.

© David Cooke, April 2020

 

Lockdown’s been tough for some of the people we know here in Chichester.

But when we feel we are losing our way, then the glories of this built and natural environment can work their magic and hope can spring up once again.

Stay well one and all!