Last week I travelled to the Midlands for meetings in Birmingham. Walking through the centre later in the day I appreciated the lights and colour and

  We are midway through the season running up to Christmas, which is called Advent. One of its key themes is the importance for us to see

O come, O come, thou calling child: the creatures, those both tame and wild, the weak and pow’rful, coax along and change their trembling into

  O Come, O come, thou shaft of fire, to lead us on through dark and mire; through desert bare thou moving cloud protect and guide, fulfil

  where the moon lives   From the tawny light from the rainy nights from the imagination finding itself and more than itself alone

  water Like the water of a deep stream, love is always too much. We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst, we cannot have it a

sweet day SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright! The bridal of the earth and sky— The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; For thou must die. Sw

  In our postmodern culture self-fulfilment has become a matter of individually self-chosen goals. Freedom - in the sense of the absolute auto

  patience   An absolute patience. Trees stand up to their knees in fog. The fog slowly flows uphill. White cobwebs, the grass

climb the stair   Turn from that road's beguiling ease; return to your hunger's turret. Enter, climb the stair chill with disuse, where the

  seeds You come to fetch me from my work to-night When supper's on the table, and we'll see If I can leave off burying the white Soft pet

  coins When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse   to buy me,