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Song for an Earth ChildBe quiet, earth childSleep in slowness Live deep in your mother Learn to breathe as the earth breathes to run as the dear runs to swim as the salmon swims leaving the ocean for the birth-ground high in the hills. Struggle no longer with the machines the numbering of time and the counting of days. Fly with the swift from the African skies Sing with the warbler on its summer passage Learn from the earth, not books of the blood and the wind and the human breath. Live deep in your God Be reborn beyond the critic beyond the doubt in the life of the mother the living Earth. Root meEarth me living God in this living worldRoot me in its soil Wash me in its waters Release me into its wild winds And in this flesh may I know the brightness of spring and the lightness of summer; the ripeness of autumn and the slow sleep of winter Yes return us dirt-God to the weight of the earth Free us from the illusions of control Join us together as one people: Serving, celebrating, enjoying the feast of your creation EarthWhat eye seesWhat ear hears What skin feels and breathes and knows This earth This land This green and living place Is confluence of rock and wind and rain Is mother nurturing Is father of what I am In its silence In its water-roar and creature-racket It lives in my earth-soul And its beauty (bright breast of dipper) And its power (black wing of raven) Roots me in this time-place-person Roots me in this time-place-person that God made me to be RockI am soft, crumbling chalk: deposit of oceanslong vanished. I am granite: volcanic eruption from the core. Hard as iron. I am limestone: sculpted, tunneled, worn into cave and peak I am flint: metamorphosed rock, split to a sharp point I am clay: soft, damp, sticky deposit of ancient glacier I am clay. Moulded. Finely shaped. Baked in a fiery oven. Life-breathed-into: A man walking on the stones of the earth An Irfon ThanksgivingGod of the harvest we thank you for the earthFor soil rich and ripe for the creatures of the earth tiny and writhing for the worms and the fungi, the moulds and the mosses renewing the earth and making it fertile: ready for the seed God of the harvest we thank you for the green For chlorophyll and the miracle of life for light transformed and air reformed for energy stored in sugars and oxygen liberated… that the world might breathe God of the harvest we thank you for grass For the sweetness of the hills robust through the winter, flourishing in spring, resilient in summer heat for the grazing and the hay and the silage: the mother of the flocks and the carpet of life God of the harvest we thank you for wood For hedges spiky and stock-proof for trees shady and strong for gift of berry and bounty of damson, for magic of mushroom and secret of nut for all that grows and swells and lives from the earth God of the harvest we thank you for mountains For earth rising to heaven for pasture in the summer and snow in the winter for the rhythm of the land for the beauty of the sight God of the harvest we thank you for water For the flowing of the garrulous streams for the wet of the rain bringing life in abundance drenching the earth, feeding the green, growing the grass, nurturing the wood flowing from the mountains into the valley God of the harvest we thank you for the stock For the wool of the sheep and the fat of the cattle for the milk of the cow and the lean of the pig for all that lives and dies and brings us food for all that births and renews the flock God of the harvest we thank you for the birds For buzzard and kite in shining sky For chicken scratching the earth and laying our breakfast for the little birds singing and echoing our praise God of the harvest we thank you for farmers For the early mornings and the long summer nights for the care of the flock and the love of the land for all that is done to feed us and clothe us and sustain the land through the long slow years God of the harvest we thank you for our gardens For beans in abundance wreathing on polls for root in the ground and berry on the bush for food shared and the taste of the earth on our plates God of the harvest we thank you for forests For the foresters nurturing the trees for the wood grown over decades for fuel and timber and the memory of that tree crossed long ago God of the harvest we thank you for each other For kindness and compassion for arguments resolved and disagreements accepted for walking alongside when the way is hard and sharing the joy when the way is good God of the harvest we thank you for this land For the animals who lived it for the people who build it for all that it gives us: the food and the shelter, the warmth and the love our home where we live and we move and we have our being. Waterlands-- a meditation for St.
Guthlac's day (April 11) in uncertain places where change is always changing and sea coming, going and river falling, rising We would prefer Dyke Wall Sea defenses set in concrete Boundary Clean lines But earth advances and retrenches leaves slime of mud detritus of sand: The Borderland where time lives in unsolid earth And so, also, is Spirit and Flesh here in the thin damp place they emerge, kiss, embrace become one and bring life Just as sandpipers prod mud, and crabs grab rock pools So here in the Borderlands So here in the Waterlands We sing growth Breathe new Celebrate the joy of uncertain places An Invocation for one in TravailO God who is justiceO God who is life O God who is the breath in our bodies and the strength in our limbs O God who is every desire we ever breathed and more than we could ever imagine Fill us with your deep Spirit Earth us in the soil of your body Create in us a word so deep, so true, so red, so raw that it ignites with the original fire and births the mystery of our unfettered soul For you are love and you are compassion and you breathe into us the fire of your freedom. Assumption DayMary's day in deep AugustThe weather's hot The skin sticky The trees dark, heavy green Swallow-skimmed sky filling with clouds: Heaven's blue slowly smothered By the rain-bringers For today Mary will not rise lighter than the air But the mother will stay with us Heavy, warm, fruitful Buried in the dark earth Praise SongAnd God made known the Name in all the earthThe Name of the Creator The Name of the Sustainer The Name of the Beginning and the End And every flower bloomed its praise And all the Epynt raised its praise And Irfon gushed its rushing praise And great was the praise of the swooping Raven And great was the praise of the diving Dipper And intricate was the praising of the spinning spider And every creature croaked its praise And every plant and every rock sang its silent song of praise And man emerging raised his head And every woman gazed On the cacophony of praise And knew in their gut the Nameless Name, the Silent God Who was the Silence behind the praising Who was the meaning Who was the feeling Deep in their belly called Love Who began it And sang it And called it into life And never asked but received the praise For in this way the Earth is whole Hangs together Holds And becomes a home for human life In the praising In the raising In the silence And the heart flung open wide The Little Seed of SilenceDark, rich, ready? Does it find warmth Sunlight beckoning? Does it break protective shell Expose tender shoots? Do roots grow White tendrils inveigling earth? Does greenness Reach skyward? Does it survive assault of pests and slug? Does silence blossom in the rich flowers of emptiness? Corpus ChristiHere is the word: Receivereceive this all of you The rain in its wettingness The sun in its shinyness The serenading of song thrush The whirling of wind-rush The cloud in black and gray A wet Welsh day Receive this, all of this And flesh of the God-man and blood of the Christ-man and grace and the divine face and food from above and extravagant love Receive and swallow and ruminate and contemplate and digest The divine gift all black and earthy and raw all white and holy and light all gift all love Receive. Easter Canticle(adapted from the 13th century black book of Carmarthen) Welcome risen Christ! May church and chapel praise you;May chapel and church praise you; May hill and valley praise you; May woods and forests praise you. May sky and sunrise praise you Welcome risen Christ! Abraham, first of the faithful, praised you May life eternal praise you; May birds and insects praise you; May green grass and heather praise you Miriam and Moses praised you. Welcome risen Christ! May male and female praise you; May planets and stars praise you; May fish in flowing river praise you; May all good things created praise you. We praise you, God of life. Welcome risen Christ! |