Glimpsed in Passing: Poems and Stories of Passion & Resurrection

These poems come from the beauty of the glimpsed moment ... a precious jewel held for a short time amid the pain and sorrow of the world, then let go into the bigger picture ... The beauty is what we remember, what gives the moment its significance.

It's the way it's always been:

to reach the sea, to stand

watching, waiting; to know

that nothing can be unravelled

to its core

but is like reflecting

where wild flowers

gathered in a vase, framed

by a shore cottage window

make of themselves

a sea-wide subject:

the beauty

of things together.

A blackbird sings

and the song echoes

in fragments of memory.

Joy Mead is a member of the Iona Community and the author of The One Loaf , Making Peace in Practice and Poetry , Where are the Altars? , Words and Wonderings and A Way of Knowing , all published by Wild Goose Publications. She has been involved in development education and justice and peace work and occasionally leads creative writing groups.