Poem of the Month – April

Apr 13, 2023 | Extra Articles (For everyone), News

The poet Godfrey Rust writes about the Resurrection: ‘There is surely no more transforming moment in history! I’ve come to think that the heart of Easter was not about restoration from sin and failure, important though that is, but about sacrificial love leading to transformation into life of a kind that would never have been possible without it. God is love above all, and love changes everything – he chose this strange path because the greatest love has to sacrifice and risk everything – not to correct a mistake to get us back to a “perfect Eden” which may never have existed, but to bring about a new heaven and earth of a kind which could never have existed without such an act of sacrificial love. It seems that Mary was the first to see it!’

And here, reproduced with his permission, is his poem Mary:

And if you ask me what a Christian is
I’d say, not one who’s pure in word and deed,
or goes to all the Sunday services,
or says their prayers, or knows the proper creed,

but that one who would gladly give away
all that that they have now or have ever been
to stand between the dark tomb and the day
and know the moment of the Magdalene.

See more of his work at www.wordsout.co.uk

Poem of the Month – March

Apr 13, 2023 | Extra Articles (For everyone), News

At the beginning of March in 1633, sorrow came to the people of Bemerton on the outskirts of Salisbury. Their rector George Herbert, a committed pastor who had not yet reached his 40th birthday, died of consumption.

Today, Herbert is remembered as one of the greatest devotional poets in the English language. Some of his verses (such as ‘Teach me my God and King’) have been set to music as hymn lyrics, but there are many more. Poetry was how Herbert expressed his faith and talked to God. His poems can be used as prayers in much the same way as the Psalms can.

This little poem – with its three stanzas focusing on Creator, Redeemer and Inspirer, has the title ‘Trinity Sunday’. But it is also a poem of penitence and longing to do better with God’s help. So it is equally appropriate for reading during Lent.

Lord, who hast formed me out of mud,
And hast redeemed me through thy blood,
And sanctified me to do good;

Purge all my sins done heretofore:
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity;
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.

Herbert’s poems have helped many during times of difficulty and doubt. His earthly life was short, but his legacy is a long one.