Archive - 2008 | Jane Upchurch

Advent

Submitted on 18 Dec 2008

December comes. It creeps in with the slate-grey dawn past the dark branches to settle with a chill. It is the month of zenith, a cauldron for the dark, backdrop for Christmas lights and fancies. It shuffles hungry feet inside and holds sway round the hearth. It is the month of endings and beginnings, of waiting for the rebirth of sun that now holds our remembrance of the birth of the S read more »

You came (Matthew 25.1-13)

Submitted on 18 Dec 2008

You came
and I didn’t expect you then,
you needed me
and I wasn’t ready,
you’d invited me in
and I had to turn away,
you’d told me what to bring read more »

Marcus Zusak - The Book Thief

Submitted on 27 Nov 2008

This book is set in Germany in 1943 and is written by Death. But given that, the book is a complete surprise as it is written with such a light touch and is so full of life. The quality that makes it very special is the language – it has the most beautiful figurative language with words and phrases good enough to eat. In my book club we all gave it 10 out of 10, except for one who gave it 11!

It is published by Black Swan 20007

Tasting of metal

Submitted on 27 Nov 2008

If this spoon tastes so strongly of metal, does that mean metal is moving from the spoon into my body, that I am sharing metal with the spoon, that the spoon is giving of itself and losing part of itself in the process? Is it the same with a kiss? Does your taste become part of me, warmly working its way into my wetness? Do you lose part of yourself in me, for me? read more »

September song

Submitted on 7 Nov 2008

The wind is on the go again, the breeze is on the blow. It is shifting time, shifting smells, shifting seasons. Autumn is coming. It’s not hurrying, it’s making the most of the remnant sun, sneaking in on the back of summer. How strange that the fullness of summer, the crops of fruit and grain and memories, should mature into roundness and ripeness, not at the height of summer but at its end, a prize given to another season, the taste of summer long after summer’s gone. read more »

All is well

Submitted on 7 Nov 2008

The wayside plants talk to me
as I pass
in words of brown and green.
‘Hallo’ they say,
‘we haven’t seen you for a while, read more »

John O'Donohue

Submitted on 15 Sep 2008

My first hero is John O’Donohue, an Irish poet and philosopher who sadly died in January (’08) but whose rich words live on in all those who read or heard him. I first heard him at Greenbelt, and he had the ability to speak as poetically as he wrote. Reading his books is like sipping honey for the heart – I think his words changed the shape of my soul! One of my favourite quotes is:

"Prayer is taking silent time to overhear your soul’s conversation with God".

His books are: