Friday 26 July 2013

Cantate Domino!

Next (short) installment from my Taize poetry book:

While melodies sing
Unknown sounds dance
From twisted tongues
As words which mean
So little
Say so much
To our silence

And laughter sings
In souls that dance
To a beat of joy
A harmony of hearts
Finds voice
To the tune
Of shared silence

Together with useless fact of the day: in the Taize songbook (at least this year's addition, I can't vouch for any others) there are four songs, in four different languages, which contain the words "Sing to God" (Cantate Domino, Spiewaj Panu, Cantarei ao Senhor, Singt dem Herrn). And during the time I was there we sang all of them.

Monday 22 July 2013

A simple place of meeting


After three weeks in my favourite place on earth, we are back in the UK and back on the internet! Those of you who know me well will know I could talk (or write) at length about why I love Taize so much ... but breathe a sigh of relief because I intend to resist the temptation to do so here. Instead, over the next couple of weeks, I am going to post the poems I wrote while we were away which may or may not capture something of what Taize means to me.

This simple place
Of meeting with the other
To find I also meet
The myself I thought I knew
To know who you are
Is to discover who I am
As both offering and open
We meet here
Face to face

Where language sometimes falters
But simple words speak trust
And found in broken English
Is the wholeness of a soul
From which is born
The fragile friendship
Of our shared humanity

And so I leave
This simple place of meeting
The same, but changed
More fully
Me