A Feast for Easter

When God speaks welcome
Into an aching heart - there
Heaven has come home.

When water is poured
On tired hands that long for touch
There Love has spoken.

When philosophy
Fails and wealth closes the heart
God's joy awakens.

See, He is Risen.
His people are not alone.
You are invited

To the Feast.




Sarah de Nordwall April 2007

SOM* - I close my mouth

SOM – I close my mouth
As the wraiths pass over the house
Tearing at the rooftiles with malicious glee.

I allow them no entrance
I have learnt of the desert deaths.

I stand as the storm rages
And the land is wildly purified

I stand and you have departed.

I breathe as the wind pales.


"He split the rocks
And gave them drink
As though from limitless depths
And they abandoned Him."

You split my thought from my desire
And make me thirst
As though from limitless depths
And still I do not abandon you.

You are an image of a man who lives
In the showroom of imagination’s window
Yet I choose you over Him.

I stoop to drink from the barren ground.

Can these ghostly waters flee?


"At your reproof the waters fled
At the voice of your thunder
They sped away
Flowing over mountains and
Down the valley
To the place that you had fixed"

But what of this storm that arises in me,
Perfect in unreality?

Who has power over the non-existing things?

They tear through the trees
And bend the trunks towards the
Emptying shore.

"Ignorant and uncomprehending
They wander in darkness
While the foundations of the
World are tottering".


I close my mouth – SOM
For I fear the judgement of God.

"He satisfied their cravings in the desert
But their cravings were still upon them.
The food was still in their mouths
When the wrath of God descended.

When the wrath of God attacked them,
Slaughtering their strong men
Laying low the flower of Israel".

SOM – I close my mouth
As the wraiths pass over the house
Tearing at the rooftiles with malicious glee.

I allow them no entrance
I have learnt of the desert deaths
And I stand as the storm rages
And the land is wildly purified.

And You have departed.




Sarah de Nordwall 2011

In Hebrew the word 'Som' means to close the mouth, ie to fast
"He split the rocks.." Psalm 78 v 15 to 17

All the suffering

All the suffering
All of it
Will come to an
End

The flowers bright with pink
And daisies white with joyful innocence

Push up
Thrust forth
With excellent urgency

Towards the Spring
To Easter tide

And all their roots are
Gripped with ecstasy.

All the suffering
All of it
Will come to an
End

And not just
An ending

But a fulfilment
A purposeful encounter

With the Victory of pain’s offering
The Victory of love’s waiting
The Victory of self-giving

To the Glory of Joy
The Joy of Glory

All of it
Can you believe it?

Will come at last to
See its own fulfilment

And its beauty

Radiant and dancing

At last.




5th February 2009

There are a few places that I have encountered where joy and suffering seem to be intimately present and connected - united through love - and the dignity and the sheer beauty of that combination are radiant.

Here is an example captured fantastically I think on a short film made by one of the bards of the bard school, Martin Earle who is living in L'Arche in France with a community of people, some of whom have particular special needs. I defy you not to dance or smile all the way through and shake your head and wonder at things... Here is Le Pudding de L'Arche..