In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Faith

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    The lines quoted above come from a book-length poem by Cahit Koytak, a distinguished Turkish poet. In Turkish, the poem is called ‘Gazze Risalesi’ and addresses two Josephs in turn, one a Palestinian boy exposed to the bombing of Gaza, and the other an Israeli young man, a bomber pilot. Cahit Koytak talks to them…

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      This poem is another written recently and pretty fast, though some aspects of it have been fermenting for quite a while, I suspect.  But the immediate catalyst was Prime Minister’s Question Time last Wednesday (November 30th). Starmer talked about Winchester College (public school) and the exemption from VAT enjoyed by these long-established playing fields…

  • Four New Poems

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    1/ ‘In the Cathedral‘ is in 5 short parts. 2/ ‘Word-Finding‘  is in 5 short parts. 3/ ‘Dancing in a Daze’  is of 1 part, but there are ‘notes’ overleaf. 4/ ‘Rowing‘  is of one part.   I seem to have stopped spluttering helplessly and hopelessly in prose, in response to present-day developments within… continue…

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  • The Death of an Old Man

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    Yesterday, a grand and often very beautiful funeral was held, following the death of a likeable, shrewd and vivid man. It is of course hard to separate the image we are given of Prince Philip, or ourselves put onto him, from the man he actually was. He surely had a similar problem, himself. Who was…

  • My Way to You

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    I keep coming upon this poem in its folder, its digital “archive,” and it’s as if I’ve tripped up on it. It somehow sticks out, sitting meekly under “M” in its alphabetical order. But where really does it belong ? I never quite know what to make of it and yet I think it is…

  • West of Caritas

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    “The Conversion of Saul” by Michelangelo, Pauline Chapel fresco, Vatican City.   This “I” we each inherit, made spine of the world, axis, pole, look-out from the world’s helm gazing on the universe, gazing on you, gazing on death…   “Mummy,” I said, seven or eight years old, “I have decided that I am God.”…