Prayers and Poems
for July |
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There
There, in that other world, what waits for me?
What shall I find after that other birth?
No stormy, tossing, foaming, smiling sea,
But a new earth.
No sun to mark the changing of the days,
No slow, soft falling of the alternate night,
No moon, no star, no light upon my ways,
Only the Light.
No grey cathedral, wide and wondrous fair,
That I may tread where all my fathers trod.
Nay, nay, my soul, no house of God is there,
But only God.
Mary Coleridge 1861-1907
Lanes in Summer
I love the little winding lanes,
In the sweet days when summer reigns;
The eglantine and hawkweed’s plume;
The dog-rose and the bramble bloom,
Like stars from heaven gone astray;
The fragrant scent of new-mown hay;
The poppies in the green-aisled wheat;
The bees that find that clover sweet;
The last song of the wren and thrush
Breaking through the drowsy hush –
If kindly peace be anywhere
‘Tis surely there, ‘tis surely there.
Malcolm Hemphrey
Innocence
The trusting eyes of little ones
How sweet they are to me
So full of truth and eagerness
And pure simplicity.
Questioning and full of love
They welcome each new day,
The round wide eyes of innocence
Of children at their play.
Our innocence seems smothered
When we reach maturity,
What’s happened to that childlike awe
And curiosity?
For grown-ups cease to wonder
At the rainbows and the stars,
They’d rather look at TV shows
And wash their motor cars.
We lose our sense of innocence
As through the world we go,
Our childhood dreams are left behind
The more we learn and know.
If we could look through children’s eyes
Transparent – guileless – free,
We’d gain a new perspective
And a different world we’d see.
Kathleen Gillum
Low-fat grace
God bless this food superfluous
And may it put no fat on us.
A grace for your picnic
today…
God of goodness, bless our food
Keep us in a pleasant mood
Bless our host and all who serve us
From indigestion, Lord, preserve us!
Robin’s Prayer
God bless the field and bless the furrow,
Stream and branch and rabbit burrow,
Hill and stone and flower and tree,
From Bristol town to Wetherby –
Bless the sun and bless the sleet,
Bless the lane and bless the street,
Bless the night and bless the day,
From Somerset and all the way
To the meadows of Cathay;
Bless the minnow, bless the whale,
Bless the rainbow and the hail,
Bless the nest and bless the leaf,
Bless the righteous and the thief,
Bless the wing and bless the fin,
Bless the air I travel in,
Bless the mill and bless the mouse.
Bless the miller’s bricken house,
Bless the earth and bless the sea,
God bless you and God bless me!
Old English Rhyme
Confidence in God
Alone with none but Thee, my God,
I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when Thou art near
O King of night and day?
More safe I am within Thy hand
Than if a host did round me stand.
St Columba
