"God Is Gracious"

A little acrostic. In Hebrew the name, John - my Christian name - means "God is gracious". It seemed a good opportunity for a brief meditation on the joy of being. The Hebrews, of course, made a definitive choice in favour of life, a choice universalised by the Christian Revelation. How sad to find oneself living in a society which regards the culture of death as its apotheosis - death, and in particular suicide, as a "lifestyle option".

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January is an adopted taste,
Out of its confines no path seems to lead.
Heat dies on your bathroom window,
Not able to resist at all.

Jousting in a hardened hollow two leaves

Outrage each other in a gust of wind:
How easy, though, to hug your knees
Nattering away by the fire.

Just as though it were summer I tramp out
Over the Downs for an afternoon walk,
Hair plastered by cold on my brow.
Now is the best time. Always. Now.

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© November 1981