Author: Ian Trimnell

I don’t want to live a small life. by Mary Oliver I don’t want to live a small life. Open your eyes, open your hands. I have just come from the berry fields, the sun kissing me with its golden mouth all the way (open your hands) and the wind winged clouds following along thinking perhaps...

Invictus by William Ernest Henley Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this...

In-between the sun and moon By Pádraig Ó Tuama In-between the sun and moon, I sit and watch and make some room for letting light and twilight mingle, shaping hope and making single glances last eternity, a little more, extending love beyond the doors of welcoming, while wedding all the parted people, even sons to violent...

Wherever You Are Is Called Here by David Wagoner Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place...

Happy New Year everyone! What a strange New Year it is.  We usually think of the New Year as giving us an opportunity to start afresh; to reflect on the way we would prefer to live our lives, on the things we would like to change, and some people choose to make New Year resolutions. This...

Good morning Friends and welcome to Friday morning prayers on 8th January, the trailing end of the Christmas Season. I wandered round various Christian websites this week just to get my heart and mind warmed up for today and found some interesting ideas amongst our denominational partners. So, let’s greet today in prayer and get started...

Greetings dear friends. Let us pause for a moment as we come before the Lord in thanksgiving prayers for his wonders and love for us his children. Prayer In your hands, dear Lord, is held the whole creation. It is your gift of fragile wonder. It is ours to treasure as you do. It has been...

OFFERINGS OF WORSHIP The word ‘Epiphany’ means manifestation or revelation—There are several instances of this in the Old Testament, notably God’s revelation to Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2).  From the middle of the 5th century, the Church at Rome commemorated the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles as signified by the visit to the...

Afternoon of Sand by David Wagoner Like retarded water Sweeping to a shore of houses, The dunes alter. Last year, this rippling hill, Slanted and sheer against the windfence, Was a gulley, and the larch sapling Stood on toes of root above the furze. Now, overcome by the white riptide, All but leaves have gone, And...

Not Yet by Pádraig Ó Tuama  ‘You’re too young to know about The Troubles,’ the peaceman said. And the youngman said: f a t h e r s h o t d e a d m o t h e r f e l l a p a r t b r o t h e...

Shaking Hands By Pádraig Ó Tuama 27ú lá Meitheamh, 2012 Because what’s the alternative? Because of courage. Because of loved ones lost. Because no more. Because it’s a small thing; shaking hands; it happens every day. Because I heard of one man whose hands haven’t stopped shaking since a market day in Omagh. Because it takes...

Huangguoshu Waterfall By Yi Lei [Translated from the Chinese by Tracy K. Smith & Changtai Bi]  Great stones of whitewater hammer down Onto our unhurried walk in the monument’s shade, And our cramped bed at the “Vienna Villa” And the gloomy rooms where no one spoke. Great stones of whitewater hammer Onto the statue of a...

Message in a Bottle By Wyn Cooper  I close in on facts fine as sugar poured from a bottle labeled SALT, comprehend nothing.   I hear a knock, then another, go to the door but no one’s there. I unlock it and leave it open.  When the bottle’s empty a note pops out, its paper faded as...