Sounding the Seasons in time for Passiontide

Diego-Velazquez-The-Crucifixion-1632

From this coming Sunday, Passion Sunday, we move into the season of Passiontide which leads us through Holy Week into the heart of the Christian Faith in the Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection.

now on Kindle

Passiontide is also the core season, and forms the core sequences, in my sonnet cycle Sounding the Seasons. I will be re-posting the full cycle of the stations of the cross on passion Sunday itself and again on Good Friday, and during Holy week the sonnets composed for each day. So all the relevant poems will be available freely from this blog. But I know many churches and individuals wanting to use these poems in passiontide will be planning services in advance so it may be more convenient for them to have the book to hand as it contains indexes and appendices  specifically  designed to help with worship planning. It is available in the UK in a matter of days from Canterbury Press and from Amazon. However I understand there have been problems with obtaining copies in America. Canterbury only ship to the states every two months and the first shipment I think sold immediately. More will be sent, but in the meantime I am happy to say that a Kindle version will be available for instant download on March 21st which will at least be in time for Holy Week. Other non-kindle ebook formats will follow shortly. The Kindle version can be ordered already from these individual pages:

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Amazon Canada

The Second Temptation

The penthouse suite with world-commanding views

As we come to the second Sunday in Lent I return to my sonnet- reflections on the three temptations of Christ in the Wilderness,  following the order set out in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 4: verses 1-13).

This second temptation is the temptation to worldliness, to ‘success’, money and power set up obsessively on the throne of our hearts as rivals to God. It is the supreme temptation of our own materially obsessed culture. And it is our failure at this point that has led to the gross imbalances between what has recently been termed the ’1%’ and the ’99%’.

‘All this power I will give thee…’ is the dreadfully conditional offer that the devil still makes, and in my sonnet I have tried to flesh out in contemporary terms some of the figures who seem to be making and receiving that offer now.

The photo of 5th Avenue above was taken by Margot Krebs Neal and the compelling and disturbing fusion of sand and money in the image below was taken by her son Oliver. Of course the  tower of glass above is only made from the sands of the desert below and to sand it will eventually return.

This poem together with the other ‘lenten sonnets’ is published by Canterbury Press in my collection Sounding the Seasons

You can hear the sonnet by clicking on the play button or the title.

All the Kingdoms of the World

 

‘So here’s the deal and this is what you get:

The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,

The banker’s bonus and the private jet

Control and ownership of all the news

An ‘in’ to that exclusive one percent,

Who know the score, who really run the show

With interest on every penny lent 

And sweeteners for cronies in the know.

A straight arrangement between me and you

No hell below or heaven high above

You just admit it, and give me my due

And wake up from this foolish dream of love…’

But Jesus laughed, ‘You are not what you seem.

Love is the waking life, you are the dream.’

So here’s the deal, and this is what you get

The First Temptation

And He was led by the sprit into the Wilderness

It is traditional to spend the first Sunday in Lent reflecting on the three temptations Jesus endured and resisted in the Wilderness, though it is also possible to extend this meditation throughout Lent and this is what I propose to do within my sonnet series. Over the course of the next three weeks or so I will post three sonnets each reflecting on a different Temptation in  the wilderness starting this week with the Temptation to turn stones into bread, which prompts Jesus profound reply ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A word which certainly needs to be heard by Christians living in affluent western societies dominated by consumer culture. I believe that Jesus underwent this ordeal on our behalf, to break open the ground of the heart and make real choice possible for us.

However I think its essential not to see the temptations entirely in negative terms. All good things come from God and those things which the devil pretends to offer, but in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, are cheap imitations of the very things that God does indeed offer and that Jesus himself recieves, enjoys, and crucially, shares. He does not turn stones into bread for himself on this occasion, but later, in the very same wilderness he takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it, and feeds five thousand with all they want, and twelve baskets full left over! If Edmund had turned down the Witch’s turkish delight he would have come sooner to Aslan’s feast!. So here is the first of the three ‘temptation’ sonnets.

These Sonnets are all drawn from my new collection Sounding the Seasons published by Canterbury Press and available from the publisher and from Amazon etc.

As always I am grateul to Margot for her thought-provoking images. you can hear the poem by clicking on the title or the play button.

Stones into Bread

 

The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here

The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.

When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.

Now He must dare, with us, to make a choice.

In a distended belly’s cruel curve

He feels the famine of the ones who lose

He starves for those whom we have forced to starve

He chooses now for those who cannot choose.

He is the staff and sustenance of life

He lives for all from one Sustaining Word

His love still breaks and pierces like a knife

The stony ground of hearts that never shared,

God gives through Him what Satan never could;

The broken bread that is our only food.

His love still breaks and pierces like a knife

Looking Forward Through Lent, and Some Links

My Motto!

Having concluded my three Lenten sonnets on the three temptations of Christ in the Wilderness, I would like to tell you in advance what is coming up for the rest of Lent, Holy week and Easter in my sonnet series, and also introduce, and give you access to the other Lenten series I am doing, a series of talks called Christ Across Five Frontiers, a Poetic Journey.

The Sonnets

First to the sonnets. There are two festivals or feast days which might be considered little oases, or resting places in the the wilderness journey of Lent, occasions for wonder and gratitude in the midst of the ardour. These are Mothering Sunday, on the 18th of March and the Feast of the Annunciation, which falls on the 25th of March but will be celebrated this year on the 26th, as the 25th is also Passion Sunday. I shall post sonnets for both of these feasts, on their day, but if anyone would like the text of either sonnet in advance for use in their church, just let me know by email and I’ll send you an advanced copy.

I will be resuming a more intense and sequenced pattern of sonnets on Palm Sunday and throughout Holy Week. The events of Holy Week and Easter are at the very heart of the Christian Faith, and reflection on them forms the essential core of ‘Sounding the Seasons’ the sequence of sonnets for the whole Church Year, which I have been ‘live blogging’ on these pages. Starting on Palm Sunday, and finishing on Easter Sunday I will be posting an integrated sequence of 20 sonnets; including 14 ‘Stations of the Cross’ on Good Friday, and a 15th ‘Resurrection’ station on Easter Sunday. Again anyone who wishes to use these in church or have copies in advance just let me know and I’ll send them. You may like to know that my fellow poet and Christian blogger Dr. Holly Ordway has been podcasting a series of talks based on the Stations sonnets and you can find a link to those here.

Lent Talks and Podcasts

Finally in this roundup, you may like to know that the series of Lent talks I have been giving for St. Edwards church are also available as podcasts. I have given the first two and they are available here: Faith-Doubt, and here: Matter-Spirit. All my podcasts are available via itunes you can see them on my itunes podcast page and you can sign on to recieve them by searcing for my name in your iplayer, or by going to my podomatic home page here. From this page you can explore a number of other sermons and talks on poetry and poets.

In my next blog post I will be bringing you news about the paperback version of my book Faith Hope and Poetry, which has at last been published and giving you a little taste of what’s in it and what the critics have said about it.

The 'Temple of Peace' where many of my sonnets were composed.

Temptation in the Wilderness (2)

The penthouse suite with world-commanding views

So we come, in this Lenten sonnet sequence, to the second of the ‘temptations in the wilderness’ (I am following the order set out in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 4: verses 1-13).

This is the temptation to worldliness, to ‘success’, money and power set up obsessively on the throne of our hearts as rivals to God. It is the supreme temptation of our own materially obsessed culture. And it is our failure at this point that has led to the gross imbalances between the 1% and the 99%, against  which the Occupy movement are understandably protesting. ‘All this power I will give thee…’ is the dreadfully conditional offer that the devil still makes, and in my sonnet I have tried to flesh out in contemporary terms some of the figures who seem to be making and receiving that offer now.

The photo of 5th Avenue above was taken by Margot Krebs Neal and the compelling and disturbing fusion of sand and money in the image below was taken by her son Oliver. Of course the  tower of glass above is only made from the sands of the desert below and to sand it will eventually return.

You can hear the sonnet by clicking on the play button or the title.

All the Kingdoms of the World

 

‘So here’s the deal and this is what you get:

The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,

The banker’s bonus and the private jet

Control and ownership of all the news

An ‘in’ to that exclusive one percent,

Who know the score, who really run the show

With interest on every penny lent 

And sweeteners for cronies in the know.

A straight arrangement between me and you

No hell below or heaven high above

You just admit it, and give me my due

And wake up from this foolish dream of love…’

But Jesus laughed, ‘You are not what you seem.

Love is the waking life, you are the dream.’

So here's the deal, and this is what you get

Temptation in the Wilderness (1)

And He was led by the sprit into the Wilderness

It is traditional to spend the first Sunday in Lent reflecting on the three temptations Jesus endured and resisted in the Wilderness, though it is also possible to extend this meditation throughout Lent and this is what I propose to do within my sonnet series. Over the course of the next three weeks or so I will post three sonnets each reflecting on a different Temptation in  the wilderness starting this week with the Temptation to turn stones into bread, which prompts Jesus profound reply ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A word which certainly needs to be heard by Christians living in affluent western societies dominated by consumer culture. I believe that Jesus underwent this ordeal on our behalf, to break open the ground of the heart and make real choice possible for us.

However I think its essential not to see the temptations entirely in negative terms. All good things come from God and those things which the devil pretends to offer, but in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, are cheap imitations of the very things that God does indeed offer and that Jesus himself recieves, enjoys, and crucially, shares. He does not turn stones into bread for himself on this occasion, but later, in the very same wilderness he takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it, and feeds five thousand with all they want, and twelve baskets full left over! If Edmund had turned down the Witch’s turkish delight he would have come sooner to Aslan’s feast!. So here is the first of the three ‘temptation’ sonnets.

As always I am grateul to Margot for her thought-provoking images. you can hear the poem by clicking on the title or the play button.

Stones into Bread

 

The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here

The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.

When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.

Now He must dare, with us, to make a choice.

In a distended belly’s cruel curve

He feels the famine of the ones who lose

He starves for those whom we have forced to starve

He chooses now for those who cannot choose.

He is the staff and sustenance of life

He lives for all from one Sustaining Word

His love still breaks and pierces like a knife

The stony ground of hearts that never shared,

God gives through Him what Satan never could;

The broken bread that is our only food.

His love still breaks and pierces like a knife

Letting Go for Lent

Van Gogh’s painting of The Sower

Sing a song of sowing, of carrying the seed

A song of hopeful planting, to meet a future need,

Sing a song of letting go, and falling to the ground,

Of burying that feels like loss, still waiting to be found

These are the opening words of a lyric I wrote for Redemption Song, a play about the story of Ruth and Naomi, but they have come back to me as I turn my thoughts to the late Lent that starts this month. It seems fitting that Lent, a season for ‘letting go’ should coincide with spring, a season for sowing seed. Perhaps we should see our Lenten observance as the ‘letting go’ of a Sower of Seed, and not just the ‘giving up’ of an Abstemious Pharisee. If there are things we choose to do without, perhaps we should let them go into God, drop them as seeds, into the good ground of His Love, so as to receive them back at his hand, in another form and another season. This is what Jesus did for his forty days in the wilderness. He let go, and said ‘no’ to the temptation to make stones into bread, to make a private feast in the desert. But God took the seed of what he had ‘let go’ and it bore fruit a hundred fold when he broke bread in that same wilderness and shared it with five thousand. God gave him back what he gave up, but in a newer and better form, made possible by that first letting go.

And that was true of the deepest letting go of all. When it comes to Holy Week and Passiontide we shall see Jesus let his whole life go into God; “into thy hands I commit my spirit” he says from the cross. But that Good Friday ‘letting go and falling to the ground’, that ‘burying that felt like loss’ was the prelude to a glorious finding, and giving back on Easter Day.

Perhaps we can so ‘let go’ our lives into God this Lent that we may find that God has let his life go into us too, has planted his Love, His Son, as a spring-sown seed, to grow in our lives from Easter and Beyond.

Oh and by the way the lyric I mentioned above is from a song, also simply called Redemption, which I hope will appear on my next cd. Meanwhile the full lyrics are here and you can hear an early ‘mix’ of the whole song  here, or by clicking on the ‘play’ button below.