Poetry in Ordinary Time: For Remembrance Day

Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
"The Poppy Project" - November 2018

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

between the crosses, row on row,

that mark our place; and in the sky, 

the larks, still bravely singing, fly,

scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago 

we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

loved and were loved. and now we lie

in Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

to you, from failing hands we throw

the torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

we shall not sleep, though poppies grow

in Flanders Fields.

-- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Light of Robert's Homily - November 3:

See Luke 19: 1-10

😖

Poetry in Ordinary Time: For Autumn, All Saints, All Souls...

This gift from Mary Oliver, for your enjoyment and reflection:

Snow Geese

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!

     What a task

          to ask

of anything, or anyone,

yet it is ours,

    and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.

One fall day I heard 

   above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound

I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was

a flock of snow geese, winging it

    faster than the ones we usually see,

and, being the colour of snow, catching the sun

so they were, at least in part, golden.  I

held my breath

as we do

sometimes

to stop time

when something wonderful

has touched us

as with a match

which is lit, and bright,

but does not hurt

in the common way,

but delightfully,

as if delight

were the most serious thing

you ever felt.

The geese

flew on.

I have never

seen them again.

Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.

Maybe I won't.

It doesn't matter.

What matters

is that, when I saw them,

I saw them

as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.

-- Mary Oliver, from Devotions: The Selected Poems... Penguin Press, 2017