Poetry by Catholic writers, or that deals with subjects and themes of interest to Catholics.
Nunc Dimittis
I am a ghost man, shelled like a pea pod By the very unkindness of my God, who leading me a merry dance of years- does not alleviate, but accentuates my fears.
I have served in sacred words and rhyme, The praises of this Lord through time. Up and down the minute...
Saint Lucie's Day
Midwinter comes and in the North, the light denigrates into inky royal blues so often tinged with dark grey closing over us in squid-ink darkness.
There are lights there in the pitch-purpleness, Sparkles of light coming and going Some ever so long dead by millions of human year...
Kimmage asylum room my monastic cell And your cell will teach you everything; Say the Desert Fathers - and Mothers too. Becoming attentive to my own Autumn Invitation to hear what my soul is saying. Easing off that narcotic habit of hurrying On to an ever-receding, incomplete future Recov...
Poppies fleck the fields of Flanders mud, their scarlet dashes dotting red the shell-churned brownscape, little moments of vitality amidst morass of death, standing tall in a land where none dare stand at all.
Trees felled, birdsong stilled, bodies threaded on the wire; only the poppies wave now, not in surrender but rec...
Closing St Cuthman's
And in the orchard an apple fell to earth, floored by heaviness, fallen from the tree of life, flawed as we all are by the worm at work, while on the lawn under a canopy polite obsequies were acted out as though there'd been no death.
A strange wake this, with the dearly depart...
Actor Liam Neeson lends his voice to a short film celebrating the life, literature and inspiration of Ireland's best-loved poet, the late great Seamus Heaney.
The film was launched by Tourism Ireland, at The Bloomsbury Hotel in London on Monday, to celebrate the work of the Nobel Laureate, and to promote the Seamus Heaney HomePlace visitor attraction in Bellaghy, County Derry, the poet's ...
The poem Grafters, by the award-winning Catholic poet Norah Hanson, from her book Sparks, will be read on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please today, Sunday 28 January at 4.30pm.
One of Hull's most important modern poets, Norah Hanson was born in Hull, in 1937, and has been a proud resident ever since. She spent her working life teaching in secondary schools, then turned to writing after her retir...
A new collection of poems by Anglican priest Rev David Grieve, is being launched today at Durham Cathedral for 'Blue Monday'. This gloomy title assigned to the third Monday in January is due to a combination of post-Christmas blues, cold dark nights and the arrival of unpaid credit card bills.
'Hope in Dark Places' is a 50-page collection of poems about depression and Christianity. David ...
If we live in a secular age, you wouldn't know it from our poetry. Not only are some of the greatest poets of recent years overtly Christian, such as Geoffrey Hill and Les Murray, but many who are not remain drawn to and fascinated by "the soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage." Michael Symmons Roberts is one of the leading English poets writing today, his work having won the For...
On 30 August 2013, news of the death of Nobel Prize-winning poet, Seamus Heaney, was met with sorrow around the world. He was universally admired for his kindness as well as for his poems, which 'gaze into the reality of the world and see its mystery'. Writing in Thinking Faith, on National Poetry Day, Edel McClean pays tribute to the life and work of a man whose death, according to his fellow ...
Manchester They have gone ahead of us, for they felt the danger we were in and gave all they had to keep us from hate. Hate can hurt their happiness, but nothing can hurt their hope. They have left the currency of sorrow. There is nothing left that is small, or trivial, or unimportan...
ZANE (Zimbabwe a National Emergency) is a small charity which does great work in Zimbabwe, working with more than 2,600 elderly, often very lonely, people to whom they give aid, support and encouragement.
ZANE funded the first clubfoot correction programme in Zimbabwe. Eleven treatment centres have been established and over 2,110 children have received treatment to date. The ch...
'This WAS our Church'
To the Church of St Michael in the Jungle, Calais
'Our prayers have risen to the Lord Not in a glorious building But in a tent which has been an a symbol of hope To so many trapped in the jungle around us. We have been a haven of solace and peace g...
He was priest, prophet, poet and prisoner.
Anti-war campaigner, with brother Phil
Using homemade napalm to burn draft files.
Pounding on nuclear missile, nose cones
With their Nazare...
