Poetry

The Oyster - from Asses in Clover, by Eimar O'Duffy

Islam... and "Being in Christ" - Peter Challen - 2006

Caution... on Integrity - Peter Challen - December 2003

THE OPTION TO CHANGE THE WORLD

"My heart is moved by all I cannot save;
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age by age , perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world." 

A Rich

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THE ECONOMY ENTIRE

The entire universe, the entire story up to now,

was required for you and me to stand here today.

All the creativity of the Fireball, of the supernova,

the stars, all the genius of the plants and animals and

peoples before us were needed for this moment.

All these things in the universe call to us to be seen,

to be felt deeply within us, to be known.

We need to reach out to embrace them, and

to recognise that in our cells and in our genes,

deep in our souls, they are. 

We need to feel in the longings of our hearts,

in the callings which attract us, they are.

We need to re-member all that has gone before us,

from the Fireball and the stardust to ferns and redwoods,

from our earliest human parents in the savannah

to our present grandparents and parents –

to know we really do carry them in who we are.

We need to stretch out our arms wide to the universe

and say:

“THIS IS MY BODY 

–        THIS IS MY EARTH IDENTITY 

–        – THIS IS WHAT I MUST PASS TO MY DESCENDENTS.”

It is upon this that I must understand my faith and

design my local contribution to the world’s housekeeping.

GLOBAL MINDSET

“To operate effectively 

at the world level is still 

in some way peculiar and unlikely. 

The Planet is not yet the centre 

of rational loyalty for all humankind.

But it is precisely this shift of loyalty 

 a profound and deepening sense 

of our shared and inter-dependent bio-sphere 

can stir to life in us. 

That people can experience 

such transformations is not in doubt. 

From family to clan, from clan to nation, 

nation to federation – such enlargements 

of allegiance have occurred 

without wiping out earlier loves. 

Today, in human society, 

we can yet hope to survive 

in all our prized diversity 

provided we can achieve an ultimate loyalty

to our single, beautiful and vulnerable Planet Earth. 

Alone in space, alone in its life supporting systems, powered by inconceivable energies, 

mediating them to us through the most delicate adjustments, wayward, unlikely, unpredictable, 

but nourishing, enlivening and enriching 

in the largest degree 

is this not a precious home for all of us earthlings?

Is it not worth our love? 

Does it not deserve all the inventiveness, 

courage, generosity of which we are capable 

to preserve it from degradation and destruction 

thus to secure our own survival*”

 [* NB Salvation, in the theological sense, not salvation, had been the original word used by one consultant in urging the editors that the great perspective be not lost in recording the detailed responses from 167 contributing scientists]    From ‘Only One Earth – The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet’ Barbara Ward and René Dubois 1972

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'THE NEVER-ENDING WONDERING OF WHY'

 A man, wealthy by most of the measures visible to a first glance,

turned his attention to why.

To why he did what he did.

In the hope that it would give meaning to his work.

And to his life.

His mind would shout at him for a definition.

A definition that would possess an answer.

An answer that would make itself useful.

But his soul would whisper to him words

that his pen would never quite be able to capture.

Words that would lead him back to his sense of adventure.

And of wonder.

And to a recognition that some questions

could never end at the finality of an answer.

Perhaps the answer to his question lay hidden

in the electricity of the never-ending wondering of why.

[from the SHORT WORDS SERIES of Nic Askew]

AFTER THOUGHT

Is not this the secret of the true amateur,

the lover of instrinsic value,

persistent loving,

continuous curiosity,

that keeps professional skills from hubris

and restores, time after time,

the sacred societal quest

in curiosity

for sanity in mutuality?

PC Jan 2009