Thursday 5 September 2013

A voice speaks peace

Back to the Taize poetry ...

As always, our three weeks in Taize this summer was filled with lots of wonderful encounters with loads of different people. Taize strikes me as a place where you get to meet "real people": not because the people are necessarily any different to those you meet elsewhere, but because we encounter one another as we really are. Taize is a safe space where we allow ourselves to experience the vulnerability that comes from removing our masks and asking others to see the "real" me. This is no accident, it is one of the outward expressions of the experience of the unconditional love of God through a routine of prayer and silence.

It is this that makes for the rich and meaningful encounters in Taize. It is this that makes for lasting friendships and the tears of Sunday morning departures. This poem is mainly inspired by an encounter with one particular person I met this summer, but I think it speaks of more than just their story.

A Voice Speaks Peace

A dark and lonely suffering
Cuts deep
And scars the heart
And bleeding flesh
The blessed relief
Of searing pain
The only way
To feel

Until
Another voice speaks
Peace
In sharing
And in silence
And the soul can sing

As scars still tell
The hidden stories
Of a hurting no-one sees
And a pain which will not heal

But while
The darkness does not shrink
A shard of light
Shines
Through coloured glass
And hope
Lives
And the soul can sing

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