Adventia, day 11

For Adventia, day 11 I am featuring a poet I have long held in high regard. Malcolm Guite is a poet, priest, and singer-songwriter. He is Chaplain of Girton College and Associate Chaplain of St. Edward King and Martyr in Cambridge. Best of all, he champions older forms of poetry which, in my view, best encapsulate the cosmos they seek to inhabit. He is especially adept at the sonnet.

On the back cover of Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year from which this poem is culled, Luci Shaw says the following, “Each of Malcolm Guite’s sonnets is like a Celtic knot, with threads of devotion and theology cunningly woven into shining emblems of truth and beauty. Whether spoken aloud or read silently, these poems speak to mind and soul.”

Run to the nearest bookstore worth its salt and purchase whatever Malcolm Guite books they have. You will not be disappointed.

Viral Dailies, Day 8

The reasons to post and to celebrate continue to grow.

It is National Poetry Month. Celebration.

It is a global pandemic. Recognize, endure, pray, art.

Holy Week. Celebrate, remember, humility, transformation.

April 8 – my wife’s birthday. Definitely celebrate! And what better day than to post a love poem from the master himself? Today’s offering is from Uncle Bill. I give you a favourite Shakespeare love sonnet.

If I should think of love
I’d think of you, your arms uplifted,
Tying your hair in plaits above,
The lyre shape of your arms and shoulders,
The soft curve of your winding head.
No melody is sweeter, nor could Orpheus
So have bewitched. I think of this,
And all my universe becomes perfection.
But were you in my arms, dear love,
The happiness would take my breath away,
No thought could match that ecstasy,
No song encompass it, no other worlds.
If I should think of love,
I’d think of you.