Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February, 2020

The Whole City

This is a piece that has been percolating for a while, but it was brought to the boil following the reflections of the 4 Corners Planning committee yesterday as we both looked back on this year's festival and forward to next year, and as I read the passage from Isaiah 58 in the Daily Lectionary today before posting my LentArt picture on facebook and twitter. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it Luke 19:41 (NIV)  Looking over the whole city he weeps. He sees the poor leadership And the poor who pay the price. He sees the bad decisions in the past And the consequences in the future. He sees behind the closed doors To see the brokenness and pain, The abuse, the anxiety and the abject hopelessness. He sees behind the closed hearts and minds To see the brokenness and pain, The self-loathing and self-seeking. He sees those who are blind and deaf; Those who have no power, or will, To help themselves. He sees those hungering While others feast;

Sheep on the Road

The last of the series of "place poems" that I contributed to our Wonderful Wander as part of the 4 Corners Festival 2020 a couple of weeks ago, in this case prompted by "Sheep on the Road" a group of life-size bronzes of six sheep and a shepherd, sculpted in 1991 by Northern Irish sculptor, Deborah Brown. This installation was originally commissioned by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their sculpture garden at Riddell Hall, in the leafy surrounds of Stranmillis in south Belfast. In 1999 it was purchased by Laganside Corporation, after relocation of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and it was placed in front of the entrance to the Waterfront Hall, in Lanyon Place, as if going to what once were May’s Meadows, the site of one of the city markets, where livestock were once bought and sold. Psalm 23 is an ancient song written in a completely different context than many of us now live, yet it still lives in the popular imagination of many, even if only a

Squaring the Circle - For Nuala

After a few days off to recharge my batteries depleted by the 4 Corners Festival and shelter from storm Dennis, here's another of the pieces I wrote for the 4 Corners "Wonderful Wander" following on from the  “The Ballad of the Big Fish”   and like it, written about a piece of public art a short way up river from it. The official title of  this 19.5 metres high metal sculpture by Andy Scott, is "Beacon of Hope". It was constructed in 2007 in the recently designated “Thanksgiving Square” on the banks of the Lagan. But like most other pieces of public art in Belfast it has been given several nicknames including Nuala with the Hula (credited to Gerard Doyle), the Belle on the Ball, the Thing with the Ring and the Angel of Thanksgiving.  The this poem only came about after the walk however, after the broadcast of "Lost Lives" last night and re-reading an excerpt from John Hewitt’s “The Bloody Brae” published in "Building a City of Grace" ,  

The Odyssey

The second of a series of "place poems" written for and delivered on the Wonderful Wander as part of the 2020 4 Corners Festival. This one, which is slightly shorter than Homer's epic poem of the same name, was inspired by the Odyssey Complex, and delivered with it at my back facing the iconic Titanic Experience, Titanic Hotel and the Titanic Studios where Game of Thrones was filmed. The Odyssey Complex which opened in 2001 was Northern Ireland's main millennium project, with the name "Odyssey" being the idea of Michael Montgomery, a young 14 year old at the time, to symbolise the 'journey of discovery' that visitors to the science centre inside the complex would experience. The complex as a whole, which also includes a ice/concert stadium, restaurants, cinema and nightclubs, subsequently adopted the name, and the Science Centre became W5. However the journey of the Odyssey arena, and indeed the province as a whole since 2001 has been as protract

The Dock

This is the first of the poems shared on the Wonderful Wander as part of the 4 Corners Festival 2020. We started from the Dock with the inimitable Chris Bennett, and this piece was inspired by him, the vision behind The Dock chaplaincy and cafe, and the dry dock which sits alongside it, currently occupied by the SS. Nomadic, and indeed the old shipyards as a whole. It owes more than a touch to Karine Polwart's "You Can't Weld a Body."  More to follow... A place for the crafting of craft Creating from steel, boats to float afar A community wedded to welding and riveting Wedded to a past that sailed away A place for fitting out and refitting Repairing and restoring returning sons and daughters Battered by the oceans and scarred by salt seas But ships aren’t shaped to stay forever in the dock Shalom

Sharing Seamus and other Stories, Poems and Sacred Tasks

Sharing Seamus Sharing his home with humour and hospitality, sharing his sport with passion and ability, sharing his town with friendly jocularity, sharing his land with sensitive generosity.  Sharing politics with relational humanity,  sharing negotiations with blunt integrity,  sharing a desire for peace with equality,  sharing words with vision and clarity.  Sharing suffering with compassion and bravery,  sharing his faith with kindness and sincerity,  sharing his legacy with graceful expectancy,  sharing Jesus life and death with devoted humility.  Tony Davidson  30th January 2020  The above is a poem by Rev. Tony Davidson, the Presbyterian minister who convened the group responsible for "Considering Grace", a book by fellow 4 Corners Director Gladys Ganiel capturing the stories of various people associated with the Presbyterian church in the light of “The Troubles”. He shared it at the 4 Corners Event last night where we were lookin

Building a City of Grace: 3 Haiku

From the moment we settled on the theme for the 4 Corners Festival 2020 in my office back in March last year I have been excited by its potential: “Building a City of Grace” is something that I have been personally committed to for years, and long to see as a core commitment within the church and civic society. In the current fractious context locally, nationally and globally, this commitment is even more important. The festival is now in its 4th day, and having been south, east, and north, tonight we are looking forward to a fabulous evening in the west of the city at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School,   on the Glen Road, with poet/playwright Damian Gorman in conversation with Jude Hill, with music by singer/songwriter (and as such no mean poet himself) Anthony Toner. Later in the festival we will be publishing an anthology of poems from Damian, John Hewitt, Robert ‘Beano’ Niblock (one of the contributors to our “Grace Beneath the Cranes event in the ea

Makarios

The amazing and gloriously provocative Nadia Boltz-Weber,  who has just started a new web presence on substack  , has kicked it off with a piece which she has used in different forms in different places, riffing on the Beatitudes, focusing on how God wants to bless those with whom she regularly works, who are those that the wider church often avoids like the plague. I've loved her treatment of this already provocative list, and as it appeared in the lectionary for today I went back to her somewhat longer version and looked at how it might apply to my context... and the answer is that it doesn't. But at least one of the times she has used it she has challenged others to come up with their own Beatitudes or Benedictions in like vein.  So that's what follows... I start with my own rendering of the original list before spiraling out from there (shamelessly pilfering some of Nadia's words, but then if I've stolen from Jesus, why shouldn't I steal from her too).