Living in the earth-deposits of our history Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old cure for fever or melancholy a tonic for living on this earth in the winters of this climate. Today I was reading about Marie Curie: she must have known she sufferedContinue reading “Epiphany 2023: knowing in whole…”
Author Archives: Kate Kennington Steer
watchnight 2022
We met among alphabets. I saw myself Greek: walking the walls, inviolate as logic, mistress of philosophy’s glassy tongue. Translation came slow. I learned to trust Hebrew’s rich misreadings, risk reading between the lines: language of faith, our leap in the dark. ‘Among Alphabets’ Helen Tookey And when night comes, and you look back overContinue reading “watchnight 2022”
Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet
This piece was originally written for the Godspace blog to be a part of their Advent theme Proclaiming Justice, Seeking Peace Through Advent. It was published on 21 December 2022 here. All images by Kate Kennington Steer. … And if, as autumn deepens and darkens I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems thatContinue reading “Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet”
whole: Christmas Day
Where is that place apart you summon us? Noisily we seek it and have no time to stay. Stars are distant; is it more distant still, out in the dark in the shadow of thought itself? No wonder it recedes as we calculate its proximity in light years. Maybe we were mistaken at the beginningContinue reading “whole: Christmas Day”
whole: Christmas Eve
BEAUTY CAN SAVE THE WORLD so says the magnet pinned to the front of my fridge. But what does it know clinging to its empty whitewashed tomb? But then as I drive beyond the endless fields of rabbit’s foot and wild rye, I pass a hillside of white tulips—their cotton petals flinging the sunlight backContinue reading “whole: Christmas Eve”
whole: day 27
He loved cherry sunsets growing heavy on the branches of the evening; He loved bud coloured dawns opening from the east’s earth. He loved the sea, green in its happiness, seeking the shore; He loved to see it languishing back stonily from its crest to its groove. He loved the character of birds, the flockContinue reading “whole: day 27”
whole: day 26
We were spanked for each other’s sins. Spanked in syllables and by the word of God. Before dark meant home time. My grandmother’s mattress knew each of my siblings, cousins, and the neighbour’s children’s morning breath By name. A single mattress spread on the floor was enough for all of us. Bread slices were butteredContinue reading “whole: day 26”
whole: Blue Christmas 2022
Pity me not because the light of dayAt close of day no longer walks the sky;Pity me not for beauties passed awayFrom field and thicket as the the year goes by;Pity me not the waning of the moon,Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,And youContinue reading “whole: Blue Christmas 2022”
whole: day 23
Of all that God has shown me I can speak just the smallest word, Not more than a honey bee Takes on his foot From an overspilling jar. Mechtild of Magdeburg I wonder if I have to be dead before I can see the whole of God? It isn’t unusual to hear people say ofContinue reading “whole: day 23”
whole: day 22
Though I have never caught the word Of God from any calling bird, I hear all that the ancients heard. Though I have seen no deity Enter or leave a twilit tree, I see all that the seers see. A common stone can still reveal Something not stone, not seen, yet real. What may aContinue reading “whole: day 22”
image into ikon 