Christmas Retold – Escape to Egypt

December 28, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

Part of the Sunday Retold series – for the first Sunday of the Christmas Season.The readings many churches will be following this week are Matthew 2:13-23 and Isaiah 63:7-9
Today, 28th December, is also the day the church remembers those who suffer in the Matthew story – the children who are killed at Herod’s order, and all those who weep for them.

It is one of the hardest stories to read in the gospels – that of Herod’s terrible plan to put to death all the tiny boys in Bethlehem. It calls to mind Pharaoh’s instructions that all the newborn boys should be killed, and that calling to mind is no accident (Exodus 1). Matthew’s account is full of reference to the earlier story. The family run to Egypt, across the wilderness, later to retrace the journey, like a second Moses. All these elements of Israel’s suffering and…

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Dorset Poems – Scrumping in a Hurricane

November 3, 2017November 3, 2017 / andreaskevington / 3 Comments

So, here is another poem from our trip to Dorset, when we stayed in this beautiful, remote National Trust cottage. Like most of the poems, the extraordinary weather plays a part. This time, the powerful winds and sudden gusts of the remains of Hurricane Ophelia brought an end to the moral dither I was in about apples.

There were many glorious and very ancient apple trees, which presumably were owned by the National Trust, being on their land. However, it was so remote down our lanes that it was hardly surprising that no-one was gathering them. I could gather them. Whether or not I had a right to, I was unsure. On the other hand, to let so much food go to waste is another kind of crime. Food use versus property rights. I knew what I thought of that particular tussle, but only acted when Ophelia swept along, and swept the fruit off the trees.

The apples really were delicious!

Scrumping in a hurricane

So, here are the old apple trees,
behind a wall of warm stone.
Their branches, their trunks,
are gnarley and twisted,
some drip grey with lichen,
all are heavy with fruit.

They belong to the old manor
where we stay,
a remnant of an ancient hamlet.
So, do they belong to us,
here as we are
for only a few days?

The smell drifts over the wall,
sweet, you can taste the juice
in your mouth.
The apples lie in red,
extravagant heaps in
the long grass.
No one comes to gather them.

And then, storm warnings shake
the branches,
and then, the skirts of the
hurricane brush the hillside,
and as the apples fall,
I go and gather them,
enough for us while we
are here,
and peel them as the
juice flows over my hands,
and cook them with the blackberries
that whip across the path

And eat. What are they?
No varieties I know,
but they are good, so good,
and good the next day
in porridge,
and good the day after
cold, and purple,
and sweet.

Dorset Poems – St Gabriel’s Chapel, 1

October 31, 2017 / andreaskevington / 2 Comments

We’ve come back from such a tranquil, peaceful break at a National Trust Holiday Cottage – this one was down a long lane which said “No Cars”, and then we turned off to an even smaller lane where the grass swished against our exhaust pipe. It felt so safe and undisturbed. I felt myself calming as we slipped further away down these winding lanes. While we were there, we did a lot of walking. Taking the car out was less attractive than just putting on boots and setting off. And while we were there, the remains of Hurricane Ophelia made her presence felt.

She did great damage in Ireland, but where we were, we felt the effects of a dramatic weather event, without the destructive force. My notebook went with me as we walked, and I tried to record something of the landscape’s response to the storm.

St Gabriel’s Chapel

Walks from the door.

Seatown beach, with Golden Cap behind. There is an excellent pub, The Anchor to refresh the weary walker! Portugese man of war jellyfish washed up on the beach.

We stayed near the ruined chapel of St Gabriel. As I sat to write, my thoughts diverged down two paths. As an experiment, I’m trying to explore both paths in poems, each path taking as it’s starting point the experience of sitting in the chapel as the wind blew. This first poem follows a more direct path, the one we took over the cliffs back to another cottage where we had stayed as a family years ago, a place full of memory. It was so good to retrace such freedom and laughter. Next door Downhouse Farm runs a garden cafe with delicious food, and we enjoyed resting and recovering there, before turning back. It was a long walk, taking in Golden Cap, the highest point on the south coast, and as we climbed and descended, the sky began to turn a strange red, as the dust that came before the storm filled the air.

St Gabriel’s Chapel, Dorset,
Storm Ophelia
1

From inside this small, stone chapel,
over broken walls
I can see the sea –
the wild white water crashing
into the cob at Lyme,
the many clouds moving fast,
as one, the sky sliding
against the earth
as leaves
scratch in corners,
tangle in hair.
Yesterday the trees held
more, far more,
when we walked seven
hard miles of cliffs
and troughs,
back to the place
we were
years ago, when
we were
all so much younger,
and we walked, and ran,
with Bessie the dog,
down, down to the sea.
We retraced those steps
more slowly, yesterday,
but look how far
we walked,
look how far
we have come.

Thank you to Peter Skevington for the photographs.

The Little Christmas Tree – A good time to order!

October 24, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

I know, it’s still a long way off, Christmas. I know, we don’t really want to get started yet. Some shops, however, do seem to be trying to get us started, and October half term is the time when I try to begin thinking about mincemeat making, or some long term baking to be doused with brandy.

And yet, I notice that sales of my picture book, The Little Christmas Tree, are picking up, so some of you good people must be getting organised! As of today, there are only three copies left on Amazon.

There are still copies available elsewhere – for instance through the publishers Lion, and other booksellers such as Waterstones. So, if you were thinking of getting hold of a copy, now may not be too soon at all!
It is beautifully illustrated by Lorna Hussey, and the sparkly edition is a particular joy. Here are some pictures to whet your appetite.

Last year, I took the book to the fascinating Cribfest at St Mary’s Church, Grundisburgh.

I hope you and the young children in your life enjoy it as much this year as you have in previous years.

Mud from Coleridge’s Garden

October 21, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

In honour of Coleridge’s birthday today!

Andrea Skevington

National Trust place – Coleridge Cottage

The Ancient Mariner, at Watchet harbour, where the poem unfolded in Coleridge’s mind. The rope is particularly powerful.

On our Somerset holiday, we visited Coleridge Cottage. I was not expecting to be so overcome by the place. Each room was full of connections to his life and work. Each room echoed with the poems – they flowed across the walls, they came out of the earphones by easy chairs, they whispered to me out of the leaves of books. To be in the room where he wrote Frost at Midnight and to sit in the Lime Tree Bower were deeply moving experiences. I still remember my marvelous English teacher, Miss Rowlat, talking to us about the Lyrical Ballads, with its paradigm shift of a Prologue, and then to be in the place where Coleridge and Wordsworth met and talked and where these…

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Poem – Cormorant

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017 / andreaskevington / 4 Comments

Photo by Graham Owen

The River Deben

I used to walk by our river most days, with a notebook. I don’t know why I fell out of the habit, as it was a good one, but this week, I knew I needed to begin again.
So I walked along the lane, along the quiet creek, towards the bench where I used to sit and write, when, just behind me, my attention was caught by an ungainly black shape moving fast.
Startled, I felt the emotions I had been seeking to keep under the surface.
The experience reminded me of the last line of Seamus Heaney’s wonderful Postscript

“And catch the heart off guard and blow it open ”

Like the white swans in their wild landscape in Heaney’s sonnet, this dark bird on my river was some kind of liberation, revelation.

So I sat down on the bench where I used to sit, and wrote this:

Cormorant

Why is it, this bright morning,
that the sudden sight
of the cormorant
coming to land on the water
takes me unawares,
startles me open?
The tattered black wings,
stretching back,
the rangy sticks of feet,
the head, sharp as a
stabbing sword.

It lands in a single
fluid act, graceful upon
the slippery shining water,
but for a moment
only,
and then the bird
pierces the brightness
with that fine head
and dives
down into
its darkness.

Spiders

September 21, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

September – such a rich month. You can feel the year turning. I love the golden light, and the fruit and berries everywhere. I love the mornings when spider webs are strung with dew, and there is a nip in the air, waking you up.

Spiders – where are they, the rest of the year?
They seem to be everywhere now, including in the house. I keep reminding myself of the sterling work they are doing eating the flies, which were bothering me last month….

This is a small poem about the ways of spiders, and the power of waiting. At this time of year, so much slow ripening is coming to fruition. I find I have forgotten I watched the bees on the raspberries and the apple trees, wondering what the harvest would be. I have moved on, thinking of something else.

I forget that much I have wondered about, worried about, prayed about, has turned out all right, after all – not everything, but enough. I am learning the patience of spiders.

Spiders – September

Now is the time of spiders –
their silver webs spun between
leaves, and twigs, and blades of grass.
Each one has its weaver,
resting its legs
on fine threads,
its many eyes watching.

For now, warm fat insects
drift dreamily on
the September breeze.

The hedges hang
with berries, I cannot
pick the plums fast enough,
first apples bend branches,
and beans lengthen on their vines.

I am learning the patience
of spiders.
It comes. What you need
comes to you. Gently,
when you have almost
forgotten that you ever asked,
or wanted, or longed for it –
here, and here, and here..

I have this on my computer desktop. It helps me remember the power of patience endurance, of not giving up.

A parable for Earth Day

September 2, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

We are in the “Season of Creation” – a time when we remember the good gift of Earth, and our responsibilities for it. I am sharing this story with you again, as I refocus my thoughts and efforts on caring for our common home – and they do need to be refocused!

Andrea Skevington

Today is Earth Day, when we remember the great gift and joy of our common home. I am sharing with you again a story I wrote in response to the anger and grief I was feeling at the way we so often despoil and desecrate it, with no thought beyond our immediate gains.
The good news is that another way is possible, a way of gentleness, inventiveness, the pursuit of our mutual flourishing. The rapid growth of clean technologies, the identification of the benefits of being in a natural environment for body and mind and spirit alike, are just two ways in which this hope is coming to be realised.

However you are marking Earth Day, may it be a day of joy for all the good things we have received.

The parable of the good craftsman

Once there was a craftsman who had two children. As you might expect…

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Writing for Christmas in August – See, Amid the Winter’s Snow……

August 9, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

Walter Launt Palmer

One of the strange and rather wonderful things about writing for a devotional publication like Quiet Spaces is that you sometimes find yourself doing things at times that feel out of step with the world outside your window. So, now, in August, I am thinking of the cold and dark of midwinter. Today, it is very rainy indeed here in Suffolk, and not at all summery, which nearly fits…

I decided to base my meditations on the simple and profound carol, “See, Amid the Winter’s Snow”, by Edward Caswall. I am finding it a very moving process, and am looking forward to whatever will emerge from it.
If you feel like some unseasonal listening, you could try the following, which are currently playing on repeat in my house.

Sunday Retold – Transfiguration

August 4, 2017 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

Andrea Skevington

Part of the Sunday Retold series, following the readings may churches around the word use. This week it’s
Luke 9:28-36

The Transfiguration

With relevant extracts from my Books. I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to use any of my material you find helpful, saying where it’s from.

matthew-spidersilk1 Photo – Matthew Ling

CHANGED BEFORE THEIR EYES (Mark 9:1-30)

Jesus led his disciples on from Caesarea Philippi towards higher ground. Jesus took Peter, James and John, and began to climb the steep slopes of a mountain that rose above the landscape. Rocks slid under their feet as they walked under the bright, burning sun. At last they reached the top, and looked down on the outstretched wings of eagles riding the rising thermal currents.

And there, under the wide, open sky, Jesus was transformed before their eyes. He was shining, changed, his clothes dazzling white – brighter than pure untrodden…

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