Having time on my hands, combined with not being able to move that fast, means I am able to reflect and re-read stuff and contemplate while I am preparing things. (I have a few things such as achievement evening at school, leading worship on Sunday morning in Canterbury, that I am thinking and planning on).

While searching for stuff and inspiration I came across an old Steve Turner poetry book from 1992 called The King of Twist. The back cover quotes, ‘in these poems he takes on the fears and pressures that threaten to lead us into a dull conformity and explores the ‘wise madness’ that offers a way out’

I found myself not only distracted by the grittiness of his poetry but also by how uncannily appropriate some of them are for today despite being written 16 years ago – it goes to show how little progress we have made in reality. Does it mean we have drifted into a dull conformity, a dullness that no longer speaks out but chooses to stay, well … dull!?

Gun
What is a gun for?
A gun is for making things.
What does it make?
Orphans, widows,
grief …

Fathers
The father holding his dead child
in the smoking Beirut rubble
loves his child with a love
every bit as big as my love
even though he has no money
even though he has not read Shakespeare,
even though he was not born in the West.