Advent Vigil

We wait, wide-eyed not in wonder
But shock, cold
The world spins, stricken for so many reasons
Darkness expanding, truthfulness receding

We wait, wide-eyed, sleepless
Resisting the inevitable
Wondering if something else could happen to break the night
Seeking warmth, seeing home, listening for a whisper to herald the light

I wait
Can I hold attention?
To be patient someone said – is to be brave

The world’s saviour was born blinking into evil’s glare
An eternal mystery wrapped in time and space
Truth come close
To hold the shattered earth

The shards of existence pierced hallowed hands and feet
Before the descent into the deep depth of darkness

And then the rising          

But not now
Now is the wait, the waiting
For the birth
It’s so cold and so very dark

Don’t fret
Just stay awake for the miracle

We need to be brave
We need to be saved

© Sarah Larkin 2016

My next Advent-themed poetry workshop - all welcome ... No experience necessary!

“Things don’t change now the way they changed of old” Cuis de Comoes (d 1580)

Things don’t change now the way they changed of old

The world has morphed into a shape not easy to hold

Deepest darkest sword thrusting through these times

Piercing and dislodging

Dismembering and forgetting

The human story

What do we remember?

Dances, long summer days

Safety between sea and sand …

Things don’t change now the way they use to

Not in degrees, a progression

There’s a gathering of disparate forces, uniting for a

Tsunami

O my

What will remain under the surface of so many losses?

The morning after

The rain falls today Soak the dry ground and our hearts Turn, run towards home

National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day is on 6 October and is on the theme of Messages As this is the date of our next Poetry Club - we thought it would be good to use the theme as well.

So please bring a poem, yours or someone else's, on the theme of Messages.

Poetry Club meets on the first Thursday of the month, from 7.30pm, for an 8pm start, at:
145 Park Road, Crouch End N8 8JN.
Free event; refreshments provided.

Email sarahlarkin68@gmail.com  or text 07983 042875 for more details.

National Poetry Day website

Hourglass

White sand under young feet
Eyes filled with blue
Sky and sea and sun
The breeze brushing a soft face
Like a comforting whisper
No thought of the horizon
And what lies beyond
No thought of the high tide

There were many places
In the landscape to shelter
Many places to be alone
But connected to lived life
There was an outside
And an inside
And a path on which to walk
Where no way was barred


There is much to be recalled
And forgotten in the mist
Of time passing
Sand slips through fingers
Finger’s stiffen
Become slack
But always
Always love returns

death descends

Death descends

Like a giant bird that cannot be avoided

Swoops everyone with the brush of a wing

In time or out of time

No matter whispers the wind

Sooner or later the loss of life will pierce

The hardest of hearts

Love better now