For the Unseen; A Sonnet For Carers

To bear the burden their belovèd bears,

I wrote this poem five years ago for a service in Ely Cathedral celebrating the work of carers, but now, in the midst of this pandemic, I send it out again, thinking this time of the myriad care workers, the NHS frontline staff, the neighbours leaving food at doorsteps, the partners and families of those in self-isolation, all who are tending, even from a distance and over a screen to the needs of their loved ones. This goes out especially to ‘The patient partners lifting up a cross/to bear the burden their beloved bears’

 

As usual you can hear me read the poem by clicking on the title or the ‘play’ button.

A Sonnet For The Unseen

 

So much goes unseen and stays unsaid,

So much that carers keep within their hearts;

The children who get parents out of bed,

Already tired before their school day starts,

The neighbours who keep giving up their time,

To add a daily round of extra care,

Veronicas who cleanse the sweat and grime,

And those whose gift is simply being there,

The patient partners lifting up a cross

To bear the burden their belovèd bears,

Who ease each other through the pain and loss

And feel that no one sees, and no one cares.

But there is One to hear, to feel, to see

And He will say ‘ye did it unto me’.

Holy Week, Tuesday: Cleansing the Temple

When Solomon dedicated the Temple he rightly declared that not even the Heaven of Heavens could contain almighty God, much less this temple made with hands, yet God himself still came into the temple. He came as a baby, the essence of all light and purity in human flesh, he came as a young boy full of questions, seeking to know his father’s will, and today he came in righteous anger to clear away the blasphemous barriers that human power-games try to throw up between God and the world he loves. Then finally, by his death on the cross he took away the last barrier in the Temple, and in our hearts, the veil that stood between us and the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God, in us and beyond us.

But these outward events are also inward ones. We cannot go out to the outer edifice of church or cathedral this week, but we can certainly invite Christ to come in to us, and that is what I do in this sonnet, with its fourfold cry for Christ to come into the temple of my heart.

This sonnet, and the others I will be posting for Holy Week are all drawn from my collection Sounding the Seasons, published by Canterbury Press here in England. The book is now back in stock on both Amazon UK and USA . The book is now also out on Kindle. Please feel free to make use of these sonnets in church services and to copy and share them. If you can mention the book from which they are taken that would be great.

I’m grateful to Lancia Smith for the image.

Cleansing the Temple

 

Come to your Temple here with liberation

And overturn these tables of exchange

Restore in me my lost imagination

Begin in me for good, the pure change.

Come as you came, an infant with your mother,

That innocence may cleanse and claim this ground

Come as you came, a boy who sought his father

With questions asked and certain answers found,

Come as you came this day, a man in anger

Unleash the lash that drives a pathway through

Face down for me the fear the shame the danger

Teach me again to whom my love is due.

Break down in me the barricades of death

And tear the veil in two with your last breath.

 

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