Transcending Transcendence

"You made me feel in that moment that I wasn't alone, and you empowered me."
X Factor USA judge Nicole Scherzinger speaking to the 2011 winner of the 2011 X Factor USA  Melanie Amaro.

"You are the person you are now." Simon Callow speaking to Melanie Amaro.

...

"Pop culture is our religion, and through self-worship in terms of your identity, and through honouring your identity and really fighting for who you are every single day of your life down to your core, you can have more faith and more hope in life and in the future."
Lady Gaga, talking to Ellen Degeneres 28/4/11 - the show she premiers her song Judas (quote starts at 3.45)

Memory Harbour

"No one creates ... the artist assembles memories ... The artist is a person who has developed observation and memory." Jack Yeats

Memory Harbour

Come to rest

Within the bounds

Of coastline behind eyes

Where waters lap

And waves unfurl

…Hush now

Recall the big

And the small

Remember

And call from the depths

What you lived

…But begged to forget

SCF

May God transform what I cannot approach

May God put the final nail in the coffin

May it not be me

May God unsheathed vengeances’ steel knife

May it not be me

May God fill the gaping void left by manifold silences

May it not be me

May God ingest the swirling darkness of sin

May it not be me

May I choose to see

What does not, could not, ever, belong to me

The long drawn-out sigh *

The long drawn-out sigh
Stretches across the centuries
Each generation stands on the bow-ing bridge of years
And points, with whitening finger, to vistas threaded through with longing
Time silences not one jot of desire unfulfilled

The long drawn-out sigh
Covers like the weightless air of morning
All who are born
Grow and suppress it if you will
But know that your deep pools of aching darkness
Ripple only once or twice a lifetime

[When one word fired forth from heaven's doorway - like a lover's arrow - pierces heart's haven and at last - the long drawn-out sigh - stretched to its uttermost - is gathered into manifold meaning's fold]

advent wings

Keep looking at the face of love

See yourself

Reflected in my eyes

To measure by any other law

Relights the age-old fire

And cause that deadly phoenix

Again to rise

Its wings will beat you down

Its breath will kindle storms

Its flight obscures the light

Its eyes will pierce the night

And break your dawn

Keep your gaze on grace-filled wonder

Eyes of surprise

This advent season

Fill your soul

With the bread of heaven come down

And let yourself again be found

By a humble manger

My wings will raise you up

My breath blow away your storms

My flight will give you light

My eyes will pierce your night

And release your dawn

The God within leans …

advent wondering

God

I ask for grace-filled wonder to slip through the cracks 

I know I am surrounded by wide-eyed wonderment, so much that’s wonderful

But often don’t see or feel or know it any more as an ever-present reality, in the midst of worn-out cares

I pray for more light and more love in the swirling of the seasons

Backwards is a darkness that so swelled, but then receded at the appearing of the perfect child

I desire wider eyes each year with which to see the child as a man

I do not need to look, for the child is always there …

But, can I follow the Man?

What will happen if I do?

What will happen if I don’t?

I turn and turn on the knife-edge of choosing

In setting my face towards the warmth of sun, I know that you do not want me to pass through this season’s dark passage without lamp or map or the company of others

Your delight …?

The grace-filled seed of wonder that slipped through eternity’s fingers to the wide-eyed wonderment of a waiting world …