Tree

This blog seems to be a bit poetry-based at the moment – sorry about that! But here’s another one – this is one I’ve been working on for quite a while, although in this form it’s very new (it was originally much longer). I reworked it today after attending a really good seminar on poetry and spirituality at college.

Would love to know what you think – as usual, please comment!

Deep beneath the sodden leaves and earth,
seed splits and spills its tender roots. Fine hairs
worm up; a swimmer surfacing for air.
Soil splits and whitish leaves spring forth;
a seedling tree, potential height and girth
well hid. Thirty seasons pass before there
stands an oak, tall and proud and fair.
But then the blade, keen to prove its worth,
bites hard against the bark and fleshy wood.
The forest weeps as with a trembled leaf,
as in a breeze, the tree is torn in pain.
Planed and shaped, tree’s parody is stood;
and on its back a man who some believe
was God, hung to die against the grain.

Two minutes

Image by Matthew Kirkland (http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpologist/)

As part of my course, I had to give a short (two minute) ‘sermon’ to a few classmates the other day. One or two people liked what I said, so I thought I’d share it here. It’s a free-form poem, and I think it probably sounds better read out loud than in silence (it was written to be spoken out loud).

Let me know what you think!

Two Minutes
Two minutes. Not long, but long enough.
Long enough for the doc to say “I’m sorry, but…”
Long enough for foot to slip, for ice to crack, for brakes to fail.
Long enough for someone to say “you will fail me.”
Long enough for the cock to crow,
for blood and water to flow,
and for tears to fall.
Long enough.

Two minutes. Not long, but long enough.
Long enough to share, to weep, to hug,
to give a mug of tea to someone cold.
Long enough to say “your sins are forgiven.”
Long enough to search the empty tomb,
to feel the hope and fear within,
to hear the words “he is not here.”
Long enough.

Two minutes. Not long, but long enough.
Long enough to pray.
Long enough to walk away.
Long enough to choose a path, or push a door, or to wait.
Long enough for him to say “it is finished.”
Long enough to change the world.

Two minutes isn’t long. But it’s long enough.
Long enough for Christ to die,
Long enough for stone to roll away.
Long enough to save the world.
Long enough to speak a word to someone lost.
Long enough.