Tag Archives: Poem

Here we are. Friday 12th February in the Year of our Lord/the Ox/Corona 2021:
✔️Bread (choc & hazelnut croissant)
✔️Wine (big ol’ mug of tea)
✔️Fancy Clothes (sunshine yellow dress WITH POCKETS)
✔️Lipstick (glittery L’Oreal plum 255. For months, every time I walked past Boots I would agonise over the ‘I don’t need more lipstick and L’Oreal don’t have the greatest ethics BUT IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL’ dilemma. I gave in. Capitalism won again. BUT IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. Je ne regrette rien).
✔️A deep breath

To your table
you bid us come.
You have set the places,
you have poured the wine,
and there is always room,
you say,
for one more.

And so we come.
From the streets
and from the alleys
we come.

From the deserts
and from the hills
we come.

From the ravages of poverty
and from the palaces of privilege
we come.

Running,
limping,
carried,
we come.

We are bloodied with our wars,
we are wearied with our wounds,
we carry our dead within us,
and we reckon with their ghosts.

We hold the seeds of healing,
we dream of a new creation,
we know the things
that make for peace,
and we struggle to give them wings.

And yet, to your table
we come.
Hungering for your bread,
we come;
thirsting for your wine,
we come;
singing your song
in every language,
speaking your name
in every tongue,
in conflict and in communion,
in discord and in desire,
we come,
O God of Wisdom,
we come.

Table Blessing by Jan Richardson.

Eat the croissant. Drink the tea. Remember/Lament/Celebrate/Give thanks (fancy clothes and lipstick optional)

img-20210212-wa00115964882174095349065.jpg

Screenshot_20201006-085317For when you miss the mess and noise and chaos and laughs of your people crammed round a long table covered in food and life before the limit was 6 -

And the table will be wide.
And the welcome will be wide.
And the arms will open wide to gather us in.
And our hearts will open wide to receive.

And we will come as children who trust there is enough.
And we will come unhindered and free.
And our aching will be met with bread.
And our sorrow will be met with wine.

And we will open our hands to the feast without shame.
And we will turn toward each other without fear.
And we will give up our appetite for despair.
And we will taste and know of delight.

And we will become bread for a hungering world.
And we will become drink for those who thirst.
And the blessed will become the blessing.
And everywhere will be the feast.

– © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.

The table will be wide! And I’m already compiling a menu for when we can feast together.

Break the bread. Pour the wine. Give Thanks.