Preparation: new Pat Connors poem

 Preparation

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and the earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and Yours it is to be exalted as Head over all. - 1 Chr:29:11 (AMPC)

Christmas Eve. The most popular day

of the year for men to go shopping.

Or, at least, the most likely one.

But he has set this day apart to linger

over the pages of a good book or three, 

and fill notebooks with words of his own.

He makes a place for the pain

felt and imagined over this past year, 

then does his best to make peace with it.

He prepared in advance to be able 

to show his family tangible affection. 

His reward is not going to a mall today.

Tomorrow will be the time for celebration.

Everyone sharing the table will eat a lot 

and drink a little and be very happy.

Today, in awe he ponders the gifts 

of joy even in times of sadness,

and faith in new beginnings.

Pat Connors

Eternal: new poem by Pat Connors

Eternal

“…and grace will lead me home.”
Amazing Grace, John Newton

 

Under grey November skies
which winter follows close behind

the leader of the free world
will not admit he lost the election

the premier of Ontario sacrifices
our health to feed the machine

and a 12-year-old boy out with his mother
is shot dead in gangster crossfire.

For the love of God, which we can’t earn
we must resist the powers of darkness

until the end of their unfolding
becomes the beginning of true light.

In a world where a beautiful boy
paid for sins he didn’t commit

let us hold him close in our hearts
and leave the rest to the Lord.

 

Pat Connors’ first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was published by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013. His first full manuscript, The Other Life, is about to be released by Mosaic Press. He mentions several Ephesians passages as having influenced “Eternal” (1:7, 2:2, 4:18, 5:2, and 5:8).

 

first published in Poems for Ephesians poetry journal 

presented by D. S. Martin, McMaster Divinity College poet-in-residence

 

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Patrick, thanks for sharing your new poem. Strong! Powerful! I like the simplicity of the two line stanzas.

Congrats on seeing your full length mss through to publication with Mosaic  :  )  I believe you are an important Canuck poet, one of the few true standard bearers of the People's Poetry tradition, in the spirit of Acorn, Souster, and Plantos. 

- Chris