Tuesday 28 May 2024

T

 

He threw off that which hindered
No longer entangled by sin
In royal robes, never not worn
A joy that never grew thin.
His eyes were fixed on Jesus
Looking full in His glorious face
He had run with perseverance 
It was time to finish his race.


MF

 

Who am I when who I am is dim
When it looks so much like him
Am I there inside, buried deep
I try to search, to burrow, keep
On going. 
Keep   on    g o i n g.
If I dig through the layers will I find myself
Will I get to the core? Will I wilt? Will I melt?
Is it easier to not even ask
To accept my fate, it’s late
Can I change or ingratiate
Anything new or anything gained
Or will I just remain the same 
Old
Man
But a boy lives in me too
Never quite allowed to bloom and so I chew 
Upon this misery and sink into my destiny
Je suis déjà terminé.
I am alone in the shadows of my mind 
But surrounded on all sides 
By those who need me to be better
Who can’t see that I am fettered
It is hard to answer questions about daisy chains when you need to hide
When you’re trying to find 
a way to say 
I am not ok 
that doesn’t end in shame.
What if that end of yourself
Is the start of something else
A place to see and be free
Where you can be held
And told and told again
You are loved 
You are loved 
You are loved my friend.

Friday 8 March 2024

IWD 2024



 The Insurgence


He crushed
Brushed me
Aside 
Like crumbs on a table
Only he preferred the bread
He wanted me dead
He lanced me
A boil leaking
Unnoticed
Only my frame remained
Empty
A good place to begin
Before Him
To let the flow in
Rush deep 
Into the seas I swim
A gathering of pieces lost
A space you cannot win.

Wednesday 7 February 2024

Resolution

 Fully. Wholly. Holy.

She took off being lonely.

Held. Heard. Unfurled.

She put on being lowly.

Community

 The net that holds

The arms that fold

Suffering into the centre

Turning it into pizza.

Him

 You slowly stripped 

our souls.

With fists that dripped

malevolence.

Words that chipped

holes.

Into our bones.

One 

disappointed 

sentence

at 

 time.

A List poem on Grief

 Absence louder than presence

Pervasive pain

Ruining my egg sandwich

Tastes good with a red

A long held longing

For that forever gone

The dead and the dying

The fear and the flying

 Who am I without them

My edges shaped by loss

The thick of night before dawn

The day which never comes

Surprising laugher

Guiltily smothered

A hushed embrace

The silence of those

Who don't want to get it wrong

Carrying a quiet void

Not quite hidden by eyeliner

That ever shifting sand

Oh I think I'm ok now

And then I am drowning.

Fire

I am unafraid of the apocalypse

For it already lies within me.

The burning bush is no matter 

When my insides are aflame.

The destruction that abounds 

Is no match for the unceasing

Screaming of my soul. 

Goodbye

I AM NOT ENOUGH 

TO KEEP HIM 

HIS ABSENCE LOUDER 

THAN HIS

"I MISS YOU"

Cliffs

 I walked too close to the edge 

For far too many years

Obedience and pain the same

My friend the path of fear.


But my feet are planted now

My eyes are on the sea

Where safety was a far off dream

Is now a joy to me.

Birthday Beginnings

 She closed the gate on her worry

And shut the door on her fears.

She lay down with her Good Shepherd

Let Him whisper in her ears

"This year is yours for freedom love"

So she let the still waters in.

The tide that washed the pain away

Is the current that lets life begin.

Collioure

 Those streets that keep

My childhood sleep

With no record of the score

Where pain is lost and tossed

Like waves

And I ate cherries on the shore.

Tuesday 18 April 2023

Sabbath

My tightly coiled mind unravels here,

A ribbon loosed by the breeze.

Untethered to the size of my thighs,

Woven instead among the trees.



A few days in the Oaken Fort and I am realigned.

Sunday 1 January 2023

Sunday 16 October 2022

He is Home

 “When the ground around feels fragile

And your feet falter

Go slow then and know 

That Heaven’s rest is now his home

Where chaos meets perfect order 

and souls are made new.”

A French Revolution of My Own


In my heart’s home I am healed
By the land and Your hand as I stand 
Here.

I am a girl and grown all at once in this place
Trapped in the spaces of the past
And at once flung forward into a 
Free future not yet known.

Perhaps my day of glory has now arrived
Built on the years gone before
Wrought in my very own war
This is my liberty. Beloved liberty.

Thursday 24 March 2022

The value of a refugee



A serpent refugee
A person in need
Do you hate my skin
Blonde gets you in
In a wood in a tent
Welcome home have a bed
My wounds are unseen
Hotel showers make you clean
A lorry again tonight
Private jet, direct flight 
Does anyone there see us
Here have your visas 
Easier perhaps to be dead 
than 
to
inconvenience 
anyone 
by
p r o c e s s i n g
me.


I think that non-discriminate abundant care and extravagant generosity should be given to anyone who flees their home because of war, persecution or danger.

I don’t think our government have gone anywhere near far enough to accommodate and support the people of Ukraine and the other countries in Europe in assisting them.
It is clear that there is a massive need and it is right and just that those who have much and who are safe should want to afford that to those that don’t (through no fault of their own).

I cannot get the refugees stuck in Calais and Dunkirk out of my mind though. I keep imagining how it must feel to be so desperate to be humanised whilst being treated like dogs and rats, driven out of make-shift shelters again and again by the French police and ignored by the British government. What do they think when they see Ukrainian refugees (rightly) being given access to hotels and spare rooms in people’s homes? I can’t fathom the suffering of those who have already escaped war, travelled so far, risked everything only to find that somehow their exodus is less valid, that their torment is less traumatising.

I wrote a poem a couple of years ago from the ignorant and demeaning perspective unfortunately held by some people in Britain; those who view refugees as snakes to be stood upon. It’s in the old archives here if you’re bored and want something to read.

Friday 4 March 2022

International Women’s Day 2022


Animal/Human
Property/Home
Pay gap/Close the gap/Close your legs
Bleed.
Broken/Dreaming
Child bride/Grown
Rich girl/Poor girl/Dead girl
Bleed.
Silenced/Singing
Gutter/Throne
Who cares/Who’s there/Who sees
Bleed.
Lost/Chosen
In the dark/Known
His life/New life/Whole life
Freed.

You can’t say “Happy International Women’s  Day” until you acknowledge that it isn’t happy to have to protect yourself from the police. 

The idea of women’s inferiority has been propagated for far too long and feminism isn’t a cry of superiority but a call to be considered as a soul not an object. This day is a challenge for me and all of us to ensure that the future looks different to the present and the past. Grateful for Jesus who saw women exactly as they were and honoured them entirely.

Thursday 1 July 2021

On Hiking

She walked 

into 

the 

forest 

to lose her head

but found again, 

her soul.

She grew in that space 

and came out taller

than the trees themselves, 

full of their majesty 

and peace.

Monday 22 March 2021

Crippling Entitlement

Today he thought he’d hold her hand 

but there was a crash as the 

stand

fell and the man rolled

broken but not

old

his body was 

 cold.

Wet air in but not enough out 

he retained it all 

yet couldn't

recall

the name of his son.

One by one

the levels dropped short 

as his heart

fought 

and his family grew 

fraught 

while @LozzaFox

caught 

a ball with a friend and said 

"I am a fierce liberal and I am wrong."