Thursday, April 14, 2016

Jonathan Beale- Three Poems


St Benedict of Nursia

Eius in obitu nostro praesentia muniamur*

To live and to die is enough
An absolute equality
And there is nowhere as good
As Monte Cassino

There is only the good zeal
Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux" **
The foundation of the brotherhood
Is the tree shadow he’d know, and never feel.

How to die is the unwritten rule
Even the holy or the wise
Cannot write a prescription for this
And the gates of perception….

Notes

*May we, at our death, be fortified by His presence
** Let not the dragon be my overlord



A poem for St Bridget’s Day

1st February

For John Heath-Stubbs

Spring has sprung – its St Bridget’s Day
The light unrolls and out as a magic rug
She is in the air, brine, earth, &fire
That burns on eternally.
The hedgerow pregnant with berries and blossom
A ray of gold, silver, and platinum
Against a bronze age in a bronze land
Her kindness projects from the beginning
Of time to the sunset.       



St Anthony and the fish  

 After John Heath – Stubbs  

He spoke to the fishes
And why, who knows, St Anthony must have
Beneath the water they swam around
In their own spirituality
Their own daily dealings
Communication is actions over words
(He’d have known)
The descendants of those enlightened fish
Have come down the line
To feed the soul to feed the spirit.   


No comments:

Post a Comment