Hound of Heaven Hymns - the triumph of the moment

Poetry list

the triumph of the moment

amidst the buzz
of the ward at
lunchtime behind
the curtains of
our bay unfolded
the greatest drama
of my life our life
the sentence of death
which we are all
under and which
had been pronounced
by diagnosis for my
true love was being
executed in an
unspeakable beauty
and glory the clock
seemed to stop and
the world ceased its
turning as an
ineffable centre
of reality was
focused in the
stilling of my
beloved’s form
I held one hand
the other held a
small olive wood
cross I touched
her brow and hands
with oil from the cross’s
tree and spoke the
words of love’s
welcome and farewell
she rose and a
cascade of
sickening disease
poured out of her life
as she began to
leave the prison
which had been
the spirit’s temple
falling back into
the eternal arms from
which we have
come the air
was filled with loss
and triumph signifying
a peace and a travail
a journey and a
rest an end and a
beginning a parting
and a union which
can never never
be broken
a moment
a triumph
a life
forever