Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus: A Requiem Sonnet for All Souls Day

If there is ever a moment when the veil is thin, when, as we come close to Christ, we come close to those who are alive in Christ, then it is when we sing the Sanctus in Communion. As the liturgy says:

‘Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious name evermore praising thee and saying: Holy, Holy, Holy…

Here we consciously echo the song of the angels as Isaiah heard it, and for a moment, by grace of the sursum corda, the lifting up of our hearts, we sing for a moment, not only with the angels, but with those whom we have loved and see no longer, those with whom we are still bound together in the communion of saints. This is why the setting of the Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, the Holy, Holy, Holy, in any Requiem is especially poignant. Such music must have an element of yearning and longing, since we sing for those we have lost,  and since all the best and even the most joyful of the songs of the earth have that elegiac note of exile and yearning for home, but it must also have an element of joy and mystery, since it echoes the joy and music of Heaven. The great Sanctus in Mozart’s final Requiem seems to me to combine these two qualities in music of heart-breaking beauty.

So here, for the feast, is a sonnet which was originally composed about the experience of listening to Mozart’s Requiem at Greenbelt in 2001,as I took leave of good friends, and now has its place, slightly adapted and re-titled ‘Sanctus’, as the final poem in my book Sounding the Seasons. I post it again for all those who need, in this season of remembrance, the quickening touch of the Sanctus

Mozart at Greenbelt

We lie upon the grass on God’s good earth
and listen to the Requiem’s intense,
long, love-laden keening, calling forth
echoes of Eden, blessing every sense
with brimming blisses, every death with birth,
until all passion passes into praise.

I bless the winding paths that brought us here,
I bless this day, distinct amidst our days,
I bless the light, the music-laden air,
I bless the interweaving of our ways,
the lifting of the burdens that we bear,
I bless the broken body that we share

Sanctus the heart, Sanctus the spirit cries,
Sanctus the flesh in every touch replies

A word about “The Word in the Wilderness” (my new book)

My new book from Canterbury Press

As January is often a time when Churches, and indeed individuals, start to think about what they might take up as spiritual reading for Lent (as opposed to the myriad things they might give up!) I thought I might mention that my own ‘Lent Book’ is now out with Canterbury Press.

The Word in the Wilderness is an anthology which offers the reader a poem for each day of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, together with a short reflection of 700-800 words in which I open out that particular poem, set it in context and try to share something of what it has to offer. The book is shaped, over all by the theme of an accompanied journey through the wilderness with Christ, and has sections on pilgrimage, on prayer as conversation on the journey, and on the poets we read as fellow pilgrims. The poetry itself is drawn from a wide range of sources, from Dante to our own contemporaries.

The book could be used either privately as a devotional inner journey, just read at home each day, or the journey could be shared as a group, and this indeed is how it began. Last Lent at St. Edwards, I ‘road-tested’ the contents of this book with a group who agreed to read the poems at home each day and then meet once a week to discuss the previous week’s poems, which worked very well and elicited all kinds of new insights, for me as well as for the group members.

However you use it I hope you are able to get a copy and enjoy it. It is available on Amazon UK here, and in America here and in Canada here, and can of course be ordered via your favourite local bookshop. It is also downloadable now on Kindle

Finally I will be combining a launch of this book with a poetry reading of my own at Beautiful Sarum College in Salisbury on February 6th at 7pm, do come along to that event if you are free and in the area!

Sarum college, where I will have the book Launch and Poetry Reading

 

A Recording of my Reading at Durham Cathedral

A Good Place to read Poetry!

I had the extraordinary experience, and indeed great privilege, of reading my poetry in the Quire of Durham Cathedral, at the invitation of the Dean and Chapter there, and in collaboration with St. John’s College, where I am currently the Ruth Etchells Visiting Fellow. Many of my Facebook friends, and followers of this blog, who couldn’t be at the event itself, have asked if they could hear a recording. So here is the reading I gave. It is largely drawn from Sounding the Seasons, though it does include four completely new poems written whilst I have been up here. Will Ford, from the St. John’s College Choir sings the ‘Great O’ Antiphons which inspired my Advent Antiphon poems. I hope you enjoy this recording.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus: a Requiem sonnet for All Souls

If there is ever a moment when the veil is thin, when, as we come close to Christ, we come close to those who are alive in Christ, then it is when we sing the Sanctus in Communion. As the liturgy says:

‘Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious name evermore praising thee and saying: Holy, Holy, Holy…

Here we consciously echo the song of the angels as Isaiah heard it, and for a moment, by grace of the sursum corda, the lifting up of our hearts, we sing for a moment, not only with the angels, but with those whom we have loved and see no longer, those with whom we are still bound together in the communion of saints. This is why the setting of the Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, the Holy, Holy, Holy, in any Requiem is especially poignant. Such music must have an element of yearning and longing, since we sing for those we have lost,  and since all the best and even the most joyful of the songs of the earth have that elegiac note of exile and yearning for home, but it must also have an element of joy and mystery, since it echoes the joy and music of Heaven. The great Sanctus in Mozart’s final Requiem seems to me to combine these two qualities in music of heart-breaking beauty.

At Girton we often sing a Requiem on All Soul’s Day, which falls this Sunday, 2nd of November. I won’t be there this season, but will hear it instead in the glories of Durham Cathedral. But here, for the feast, is a sonnet which was originally composed about the experience of listening to Mozart’s Requiem at Greenbelt in 2001,as I took leave of good friends, and now has its place, slightly adapted and re-titled ‘Sanctus’, as the final poem in my book Sounding the Seasons. I post it again for all those who need, in this season of remembrance, the quickening touch of the Sanctus

Mozart at Greenbelt

We lie upon the grass on God’s good earth
and listen to the Requiem’s intense,
long, love-laden keening, calling forth
echoes of Eden, blessing every sense
with brimming blisses, every death with birth,
until all passion passes into praise.

I bless the winding paths that brought us here,
I bless this day, distinct amidst our days,
I bless the light, the music-laden air,
I bless the interweaving of our ways,
the lifting of the burdens that we bear,
I bless the broken body that we share

Sanctus the heart, Sanctus the spirit cries,
Sanctus the flesh in every touch replies

What I’m doing next!

Photo by Lancia Smith

GK Chesterton famously sent a telegram to his wife saying. ‘AM IN MARKET HARBOROUGH. WHERE SHOULD I BE?’

I empathise with both GKC and the long-suffering Frances as I too am often muddled, befuddled, and as like as not double-booked, when I come to look at my diary. In an attempt to straighten things out I have just gone through my commitments, as far as I can remember them, for the next year, and have discovered that I am indeed in Market Harborough in June, and in between, and beyond in all kinds of places on both sides of the Atlantic. I would be delighted to see, and to meet up with readers of this blog at any (or all) of the events/readings/retreats which I have discovered (sometimes to my great surprise) in my diary. so here they all are, as far as I know them, do join me at one or two of them if you can.

Here is a list of my forthcoming events including gigs, poetry readings, conference talks and retreats, as far as I know them, from May 2014-March 2015, more to be added soon

May 24th: I will be leading, and speaking at the annual Little Gidding Pilgrimage. Details will appear on the Friends of LG Events Page

May 30-th to June 1st: I will be reading at the Bloxham Literary Festival

June 6th: Charity Gig with Mystery Train at The Manor Barn Harlton 8pm

June 18th  I will be doing a poetry reading as part of a Quartet of Poets at Girton College FDR 8pm All Welcome

June 28th ‘Songs and Sonnets’ at Market Harborough Methodist Church from 2:30pm

July 22nd-25th: I will be a speaker and resident poet at Kindlingsfest on Orcas Island

July 28th-31st: I will be speaking at the CS Lewis Foundation’s Oxbridge conference, here in Cambridge

August 13-15th I will be a plenary speaker at the George MacDonald and the Victorian roots of Modern Fantasy conference in Oxford

September 1st-25th I will be Artist in Residence at Duke Divinity School, Duke University North Carolina. This residency will include A Public Reading, a Public Lecture and a concert in the Sean’s Singer-Songwriter series -more details to follow.

October 1st-November 20th: I will be a visiting fellow at St. John College Durham and will be doing various readings and lectures, at the College and the Cathedral more details to follow.

October 23-26th I will be leading an artists’ retreat at Laity Lodge in Texas, details here

December 12-14th I will be leading an Advent Retreat at Launde Abbey all welcome

March 14th 2015: I lead a day of prayer at Westminster Abbey, titled ‘Read Poems as Prayers’; praying through the poetry of George Herbert and Seamus Heaney’

March 23rd-27th: I will be ‘Visionary in Residence’ at Biola University Centre for Christianity culture and the Arts in Los Angeles. this residency will include poetry readings, performances and workshops, a concert with Steve Bell and a public lecture on Faith and the Arts. More details to follow.

 

See you at Greenbelt! (and a poem)

Greenbelt 2012 photo by Jonathon Watkins

I’m delighted to announce that I have been invited to read from Sounding the Seasons, and also from my forthcoming book The Singing Bowl at Greenbelt, the excellent Christian Arts and Music Festival which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. I’ve attended and enjoyed Greenbelt many times over the years but this will be my first time there as a speaker. As well as doing a poetry reading I shall also be giving a talk entitled: ‘Upend the Rainstick: Poetry and the Music of the Unexpected.’

Greenbelt runs over the August Bank Holiday from 23rd to 26th August and my poetry reading is on Friday at 9:30pm and the talk is on Sunday at 1:30pm both events in the Hub. I know that some of my readers will be on the wrong side of the pond for this, but if you are in England and are coming to Greenbelt then do come and see me and say hello.

Meantime I leave you with a poem which was originally composed about the experience of listening to Mozart at Greenbelt in 2001, but now takes its place as the final poem in Sounding the Seasons:

Mozart at Greenbelt

We lie upon the grass on God’s good earth
and listen to the Requiem’s intense,
long, love-laden keening, calling forth
echoes of Eden, blessing every sense
with brimming blisses, every death with birth,
until all passion passes into praise.

I bless the winding paths that brought us here,
I bless this day, distinct amidst our days,
I bless the light, the music-laden air,
I bless the interweaving of our ways,
the lifting of the burdens that we bear,
I bless the broken body that we share

Sanctus the heart, Sanctus the spirit cries,
Sanctus the flesh in every touch replies