Blessing In This Gentle Breeze

There is a blessing

In this gentle breeze

As I walk amongst the grasses

And the trees

And the sun that warms

And the light that dawns

And the soul

Inwardly sees.

The Windhover

Gerard Manley Hopkins describes a kestrel (also known as a “windhover”) so well…

“…in his riding
    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
    As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!”
from ‘The Windhover’

This kestrel was hunting around the quarry in Bayston Hill, just outside Shrewsbury in Shropshire, UK, living its own life of wildness and survival.

My feet were firmly fixed to the earth; the kestrel was “striding high” in the air. And my “heart in hiding” also “stirred for a bird”.

You can read the full, amazing poem here.

I Stand Absorbing The Beauty

I stand

Absorbing the beauty

of meadows

Vales and hills

Is it Eden

That calls me so powerfully

to this perfect

Dream?

Heaven in a Wild Flower

William Blake wrote that he saw “heaven in a wild flower“. Even in September there are still many beautiful wild flowers around in Shropshire. And maybe they can transport us to another place?

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an hour”
William Blake, ‘Auguries of Innocence”

As If Freshly Created

First mistiness

Then the dawn

As if new life

Is about to be born

In this light

Which appears

As if freshly created

And the soul

Is suddenly

Rapturously elated.

Pigeon and Pulpit

St. Eata’s church in Atcham is the ONLY church in the UK dedicated to St. Eata, who was Bishop based on the beautiful Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne from 681-685 A.D.! And how appropriate that this pigeon posed for me recently, on the pedestrian bridge at Atcham.

Nature speaks so clearly in Shropshire – as it does all over the world. St. Francis of Assisi preached to the bird – he was in touch with the natural world. Perhaps churches today can help call us back to nature – creation – like this pigeon did for me today!

I Watched the Sunrise

Wroxeter’s

A Roman place

And in that space

So many souls have wandered

Today like them

I watched the sunrise

And just like them I stopped

And pondered.

Wroxeter Roman City, with The Wrekin behind, September 2021

Delicious Hours

At Haughmond hill

The wild flowers

Create for us

Delicious hours

So we can feel

In place

At peace

Reminded just

How wondrous

Nature is.

Here We Belong

The blessings

Of this breeze

Makes the grasses

Respond

Here we belong

Amongst hills and plains

Amongst the birds

And the trees

Until we discover

The blessing

Of a fuller

Eternity.

Seasons of The Wrekin

The Wrekin is an iconic, landmark hill in Shropshire, and can be seen for miles and miles around – so is a familiar sight and is much-loved by local.

Locals use phrase “Going all round the Wrekin” to mean “Going the long way round / into too much detail / all over the place” – it does take about two hours to walk round its base, and it is a strenuous climb to go to the top and down again!