Cantate Domino!

Next (short) installment from my Taize poetry book:

While melodies sing

Unknown sounds dance

From twisted tongues

As words which mean

So little

Say so much

To our silence

And laughter sings

In souls that dance

To a beat of joy

A harmony of hearts

Finds voice

To the tune

Of shared silence

Together with useless fact of the day: in the Taize songbook (at least this year's addition, I can't vouch for any others) there are four songs, in four different languages, which contain the words "Sing to God" (Cantate Domino, Spiewaj Panu, Cantarei ao Senhor, Singt dem Herrn). And during the time I was there we sang all of them.

A simple place of meeting

After three weeks in my favourite place on earth, we are back in the UK and back on the internet! Those of you who know me well will know I could talk (or write) at length about why I love Taize so much ... but breathe a sigh of relief because I intend to resist the temptation to do so here. Instead, over the next couple of weeks, I am going to post the poems I wrote while we were away which may or may not capture something of what Taize means to me.

This simple place

Of meeting with the other

To find I also meet

The myself I thought I knew

To know who you are

Is to discover who I am

As both offering and open

We meet here

Face to face

Where language sometimes falters

But simple words speak trust

And found in broken English

Is the wholeness of a soul

From which is born

The fragile friendship

Of our shared humanity

And so I leave

This simple place of meeting

The same, but changed

More fully

Me