Searching for clues

 Years ago I produced a slim paper cover A4 booklet called "searching for clues" A little bit of poetry for friends to read and ponder.  I was an earnest soul I think but people seemed to like it.  A few more equally slim booklets followed, each Christmas in lieu of fancy gifts.  I seem to have lost that gift of thoughtful, biblical reflection or maybe it was just a season in life.  Now I blog and have learned and am learning the magic art of writing laments.  I've just read church "focus" bulletin and seen a fellow wordsmith has written his own well crafted lament.

So I thought I would have a go.  I notice that Job, Jeremiah, Habbakuk and many others produced the most wretchedly downbeat songs when things got tough and God didn't seem to mind even if he did tell Jeremiah to get a grip - well maybe not in so many words. I've been really struck by Habbakuk's lament - the words are so pictorial and evocative- even though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines etc, but he is describing large scale hardship and harrowing famine. We don't, here, have the same but:

I miss normality - whatever that was, when with uncovered faces we could chat

and laugh and read each others' smiles, not just their eyes.  Even as one whose hands do the talking.

Words embodied, not remote and artifically lighted.

Even as an awkward rook I miss singing - factory men whistle and sing why must we be silenced?

Everything feels awkward - I don't know the rules, don't particularly care either

I know it is important, but was it important enough?

To ruin the economy

To finish the careers of older workers

To blight and stunt the growth of those who are low paid

To feed the bloated online retailers - I share that guilt.

Yesterday there was a rainbow arching rain soaked motorway sky

A covenant promise but a promise that is not necessarily a soft option

For those who wait

 

yes, it's choppy prose but I need to keep writing after a relentless day of shivering with the warehouse door open and scanning sick records.  And in every workplace, "flu" seems to be a Friday/Monday thing!!