Category Archives: Uncategorized

Couldn’t believe my eyes today That senator I see With family holding rifles Around the Christmas tree All beaming smiling faces I am sure you will agree But what gives with the rifles? Dearie dearie me   I do not know America So do not understand Why bearing arms seems vital In that ginormous massiveContinue reading “Land Of The Free”

Having lost the power of walking And lowered in through the roof I find myself before the man The man who knows the truth   The story of my life he knows He sees my very soul He wants to heal the whole of me Not just my power to stroll   The healing ofContinue reading “Paralysis”

I saw God’s salvation in a crib In Hindsford church The Bambino in the straw And shepherds gathered round him Ox and ass there too Mary and Joseph I looked on them in awe   So this is God they tell me Born in poverty Born as one of us Long time ago It looksContinue reading “All Mankind Shall See”

What were we? Seven or eight I suppose On a Nature Walk from school In the woods A crocodile line of children Two by two On a path surrounded by tall trees A silent congregation standing tall Sunbathing that day as I recall When suddenly A girl ran up beside me And kissed me onContinue reading “A Stolen Kiss”

  ‘Smile! God loves you’ always turned me off I found it too easy and so trite In the face of the suffering That people bear each day This happy phrase annoyed me Go! Go away!   But being told ‘God knows you’ That had me intrigued It’s lovely to be known I do notContinue reading “I Know”

Watch Luca Brecel It will set your heart at ease A walking meditation Gentle as a breeze   Action smooth as Brylcreem For which he has no need A Belgian snooker player All ease all ease his creed   Long red to the corner Easy does it now Follow up position Keeps a gentle flowContinue reading “A Touch of Class”

It’s lovely to be well and to be old To sit at home all day and not be told My time’s my own to do with as I please This time of life just right to be at ease   A window on the world I now enjoy And writing every day I now employContinue reading “Coming Home”

Mass was said at seven But we moved it to midday We didn’t face the altar But turned the other way We didn’t mumble Latin We used the English tongue And all this happened long ago In days when I was young   The quiet solid settled church I entered as a lad Changed overnightContinue reading “Rock Solid”

A friend of mine has passed away Or should I say ‘has died’ For both of us are northerners And bluntness is our pride And he had twice the given lot Born in Lancashire But growing up in Bradford Yes Yorkshire I fear   Straightforward in his talking But thoughtful with it all A quietContinue reading “In Memoriam ~ Kevin Callaghan CSsR”

  It beggars belief To hurt a child The child was not her own Broken homes and families Bring broken hearts to burn With anguish and with anger Anger that we turn Upon a child an innocent One who cannot harm All hidden from the public gaze So none to raise alarm   The womanContinue reading “Love and Truth”

I didn’t make pope It’s not on my CV Priest and prison pastor Prefect of students Seminary professor Parish priest and parish mission preacher But never pope or bishop There you go   Francis present pope He has the human touch The human face the world Looked out to see Benedict the scholar Has givenContinue reading “Papal Pronouncement”

When I saw their faces That’s when it hit home The people who have died up here In Scotland now my home Till then it was only numbers And numbers don’t impress Not the way that faces do Numbers we don’t care less   But faces speak for people People we have lost Smiling facesContinue reading “Your Face”

How the mighty have fallen Fred Dibnah brought them down The chimney stacks of Bolton Undermined and fired t’t ground   And that is what will happen To a house that’s built on sand It all comes crashing down When storms rage through the land   And sadly that’s what happens To human lives andContinue reading “Steeplejack”

Folk came flocking to him Eager to be well Like people at a doctor’s door A surgery-like swell All wanting to be well again Walk this world with ease The blind the lame the crippled All kinds of disease   And then he fed the gathered throng Bread and fish to share Blessed and brokeContinue reading “All In One Day”

  I saw a prison cell Narrow and confined And then another darker cell Solitary in mind Grim and life denying Sadness to the soul Of anyone caught up in there Desperate for parole   I know that kind of feeling I’ve lived inside a cell Monastic cell From age of seventeen I remember theContinue reading “The Cell”