Christ the Oboe
For an orchestra tuning up,
The oboe plays the note of A.
Instruments, in their variegation,
Tune themselves to Alpha.
In tune with each other,
They are ready and waiting,
Attentive, well-tempered,
Consort for concert.
© Graham Kings
Herbert’s Hilary
In her psychotherapy, I imagine,
Hilary performs the role
She typically plays at parties.
‘Quick-ey’d Love’,
Noticing the unnoticed,
Gently welcoming,
Releases the reticent.
Loved by Love, she loves.
© Graham Kings
Concealed in a Comma
Where does the common-or-garden comma
Guard the life of Christ?
In the Nicene Creed,
Between, ‘and was made man’
And, ‘was crucified for us’.
Three quarters of the Gospels
Hidden in a comma.
The grounded life of the Controversialist,
Three centuries later,
Was not dissected, divided and debated
As much as his eternal life as God,
His conception by the Virgin,
And his bodily resurrection.
Our life is hid with Christ in God:
His life - concealed in a comma.
Preaching ‘Kingdom is now’,
Healing sick with power,
Teaching crowds with parables,
Walking hills and valleys,
Contradicting snides of scribes,
Abiding with sidelined:
Diminishing the lofty, raising the lowly.
Come on, Theologians of Nicaea,
Nineteen hundred years ago,
Expand your comma.
Have a heart and harken.
Give space to the life on earth
Of the Life of the Universe:
Intermediate time of Intermediary,
Between eternity and eternity,
Son of Man contracted to a span.
Express the compressed:
Point to the tale of the point with a tail.
© Graham Kings
Consecration
In Blackwell’s, on the Broad,
Between appointment and announcement,
Contemplating coping as a bishop,
I laugh out loud,
Disturbing book-browsers.
In Herbert’s, ‘Church Music’,
I read the enigmatic plea:
‘God help poore kings.’
In Westminster Abbey,
Inundated by the Spirit,
Hilaritas mingles with gravitas.
Laying on of hands,
Anointing with oil,
Giving of the Bible And a ring, engraved:
‘God help poore Kings.’
© Graham Kings
Prayer Book of Christ
Sited in you,
Excited by you,
I recite your Psalms,
To gain, again, my sight.
© Graham Kings
