Poems and Pictures

The Bird Psalm

U.A.Fanthorpe

I encountered this little bird when staying in a cottage beside the beach at Rockcliffe in May 2022. A beautiful warm spring afternoon with absolutely no visitors about. Even the icecream van had left. And there was suddenly this – I think- Rock Pippit. Photographing it meant rushing into the house to get the camera and long lens – let those who have experienced understand – getting the settings right, creeping quietly back out, and hoping the bird would still be there … Joy of joys it was – and – the camera settings were correct ..

Evelyn Underhill in her poem ‘Immanence’ writes: ‘I come in the little things’ saith the Lord.

U.A.Fanthorpe says the same thing differently in her poem: The Bird Psalm.

The Swallow said,
He comes like me,
Longed for; unexpectedly.

The superficial eye
Will pass him by,
Said the Wren.

The best singer ever heard,
No one will take much notice,
Said the Blackbird.

The Owl said,
He is who, who is he
Who enters the heart as soft
As my soundless wings, as me.

Ramblings in Easter Five

The poet Stewart Henderson wrote a poem entitled ‘Pentecost is Everyday’. If Pentecost is everyday, then so also is Easter. We may be at Easter 5 and coming towards the formal end of the Easter season, with the celebration of the Ascension and Pentecost imminent, but the hope of the Easter season goes on beyond, sustaining all that we are and do, empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost.

So it is not too late to share this Easter poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins that I have recently and belatedly stumbled upon.

Easter

Break the box and shed the nard;
Stop not now to count the cost;
Hither bring pearl, opal, sard;
Reck not what the poor have lost;
Upon Christ throw all away:
Know ye, this is Easter Day.

Build His church and deck His shrine,
Empty though it be on earth;
Ye have kept your choicest wine—
Let it flow for heavenly mirth;
Pluck the harp and breathe the horn:
Know ye not ’tis Easter morn?

Gather gladness from the skies;
Take a lesson from the ground;
Flowers do ope their heavenward eyes
And a Spring-time joy have found;
Earth throws Winter’s robes away,
Decks herself for Easter Day.

Beauty now for ashes wear,
Perfumes for the garb of woe,
Chaplets for dishevelled hair,
Dances for sad footsteps slow;
Open wide your hearts that they
Let in joy this Easter Day.

Seek God’s house in happy throng;
Crowded let His table be;
Mingle praises, prayer, and song,
Singing to the Trinity.
Henceforth let your souls always
Make each morn an Easter Day.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1899)