WHERE THE BATTLE RAGES

  A BLOOD-BOUGHT LAND    Beyond the ring of castled crags That shield the gentle, rolling, hills  A red-white cross flutters fierce Flutters o'er a blood-bought land.  O'er a people shaped by grace Forged from fiery tribes to make A single stern yet kindly race Discipled by His enlightened reign  For nigh on twice a thousand years Grace has lapped these noble shores Vanquished foes, delivered hope Tamed cruel kings and shook off popes Bravely wafts that standard still  Where faith did flow from every stream And overspilled to flood the earth  Brought goodly words To a blood-bought world

  I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD   I don't believe in God I know God   For I've met Him in the gloaming And in the glory bright I've seen Him in the shadows And in the glare of light  I've found Him in the stars And in the wincing sun   In the day of peril With nowhere I can run  He's in the song of birds And in the sigh of breeze He’s in the scudding clouds And the rhythmed seas  He's in the roar of war And all the schoolyard noise  In the pain of loss And all the passing joys I've sensed Him on the edge And in the futile void Through the years of plenty  And grinding, fruitless, toil    I've held Him in the dark When there seemed to be no way   Through the blank, dank, tunnel Unto a better day    I don't believe in God  I know Him, don’t you see? But better than all of this To know that He knows me.        

  WOE TO THEM The eco-Cross stands inert Drips bird blood on plains of dirt By fields of gold made glassy Hell Leaking lead on noxious fells Fond coastal views become a prey  To cluttered carbon fibre blades  Copse and brook, neat sheepfold   This Blessed Plot swallowed whole   Beach by beach, field on field  Bit by bit our land must yield Till just a few 'Parks' to mind (all bossy signs and orange rind) All we loved has been defiled   Farewell to our mauled isle!    But woe to them  Who brought such dearth!  Woe to them Who rape the earth!

  SOWN IN HOPE   On that day That breath expire Place not this soul  On pagan fires To smother hope As smoke ascends As if a tale Had reached its end Nor bury me  Like so much waste With brutal speed   And lack of grace   Much my soul  Would rather be Sown in hope By men like me Laid like seed To rest awhile  In peaceful shade Midst Nature's smile Those sown in Christ Are never lost Kept from harm  They're free from frost  Held in ward until their Lord  His great love no more restrain  And one gloried Summer's Day   They bud and blossom here again 

  ETERNITY IN OUR HEARTS   You're Ancient of Days Uncaused and alone  Immune from all change The Alaph and Tav    You're Mover and Master  Chronos Supreme Aloof as old stone Tomorrow's Today  You hear in a wink All saints in all times    We creatures of Time Immersed in the day  Suffused with ill years And riddled with loss Cluttered with trials, And dizzied by Now No sight of above No views around Vertiginous falls Swallow below We reach for the fixed And yearn for the still  In search of the eternal moment  With no place to hold  On Time's slick stone. 

 RAPTOR WINGS   Nothing's wrong  But something's wrong All's well for thee  But not for me  I'm a wide-eyed bird    That scans for things Skulks in fear Of raptor wings  Something's there  That shades the sun Something's there  That soils the blue You'll say there's naught  But I know there's things  So I'll stay in fear Of raptor wings

 TODAY   Yesterday, it came and went  Swirled a while and drained away  Joined a bank of days part-spent  Making way for more Today  Today is set and ever stays  Firm and fixed in all its ways Today, the guest that will not go!  Today, the oft-rejected beau!  Today, the undefeated foe!  Thrice Today and still it stays! Sees Yesterdays pile up like snow  Won't give Tomorrow any go.