Lighting fires

Dear friends,

The moment has come at last – MY BOOK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED!!! And Christian Education have done a wonderful job, I am very pleased with it.  If you live near Ruislip and would like to come to my book launch party on March 26th send me an email and I will forward an invite.  If not, you can still buy the book (£7.99).  You can get it from http://shop.christianeducation.org.uk/ or from http://www.amazon.co.uk/ through their used & new section, or ring 0121-472-4242.  Let me know what you think of it, and please let others know about it.  It is written so people who don’t go to church and are uncomfortable with religious jargon can enjoy it, and also people who do! 

The book has been a nice splash of colour within the grey of this ongoing winter, a winter that has felt depressing, and that is the subject of the first new piece on my website http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/.

LIGHTING FIRES
It is light now when I rise, a pearly haze of pre-dawn glimmer that lets me see shapes without needing a lamp.  By the time I come down into the garden the day has broken fully, but no sun to be seen, just a blanket of grey filling the sky and the branches.  It is so wet everywhere, puddles and pools on any surface that will hold them, and drops lining every branch.  Each day we think Spring might start to approach there is another flurry of sleet or snow, another blast of air from the Arctic.

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/words

I’m not sure if I will be doing any more pieces for Word live as they have changed personnel, but this is a piece published in December about what it means to spend time in my father’s house.

MY FATHER’S HOUSE
Our father, my father,
I come into your house
like a pauper to a palace
and you receive me with
open doors, open arms,
open heart.

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/word-live

Lastly, a short simple poem I wrote when I went to get a drink in the middle of the night.

LITTLE THINGS
I have warm slippers
to slip my feet in
as I pad to the dark kitchen.
There is a slice of lemon
in my glug of sparkling water.
The house hums its night song
around me.
The pleasure of little things
is big as a mountain.

To read this go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/poems

Looking forward to seeing some of you on March 26th.  Looking forward to Spring.

Love Jane