PoetryOfPlace
-
By the Triogue’s Edge
Inspired by the lone heron standing by the River Triogue in Port Laoise that I see as I walk up to dialysis. I stand beside the quiet streamWhere Triogue’s waters glide;The mallards chatter in their team,But I keep to the side.The park hums soft with passing feet,With prams and dogs and play;Yet here upon my… Continue reading
-
In the Thin Place of Forty Days
Rooted in the landscape, spirituality, and imaginative tradition of the Irish midlands, the text interweaves the great biblical “forty” journeys—the flood, the exodus, Sinai, the wilderness, and the risen Christ’s forty days—with the sacred geography of Kildare and its surrounding boglands. Drawing on Celtic Christian imagery and the rhythms of creation, it invites worshippers to… Continue reading
AnglicanCommunion, AnglicanTradition, bible, BiblicalRoots, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, Contemplation, ContemplativePractice, ContemplativePrayer, CreativeSpirituality, DivineLight, Eucharist, Faith, FaithAndHistory, god, GodsCreation, Hymnody, HymnWriting, Ireland, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishLandscape, IrishReflection, IrishSpirituality, jesus, Kildare, Lent, Lent2026, LiturgicalReflection, ModernMonasticism, NeuroDivine, NewHymn, NewHymns, NewSong, Pilgrimage, PoetryOfPlace, QuietMoments, QuietWitness, SacredPerception, SacredSpaces, Sanctity, ScriptureAndSilence, ScriptureAndStillness, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection, ThinPlaces, ThresholdOfGrace -
Fit Lads of Winter & The Birth of The Icicle Lounge
There’s something about winter that sharpens everything. The air is colder. The sky is clearer. The silence feels closer to the skin. And yet—in that cold—warmth becomes unmistakable. “Fit Lads of Winter” began as a playful meditation on contrast. I kept imagining figures striding through snow as if it were nothing. Jackets open. Breath visible.… Continue reading
-
Arrival
Arrival is a poem about coming home—not only to a place, but to a moment, a body, a ward, a riverbank, a sky clearing after rain. Set along the familiar paths of Monasterevin and Ballybrittas, the poem moves through train platforms, hospital rooms, shared umbrellas, and sudden shafts of light. What might appear ordinary becomes… Continue reading
Arrival, Ballybrittas, ContemplativeLife, EverydayGrace, Faith, FaithInTheOrdinary, GentleStrength, GraceUponGrace, IrishLandscape, LightBreakingThrough, LivingWithVulnerabiity, Monasterevin, NeurodivergentVoice, NeuroDivine, PilgrimParth, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, QuietMoments, RiverMoments, SacredAttunement, SacredOrdinary, SacredSpaces, SmallMercies, StainedGlassArt, ThinPlaces -
Waiting
In much of Christian spirituality, waiting is treated as a virtue—Advent waiting, prayerful waiting, hopeful waiting. But that language can sometimes feel abstract, almost decorative. It does not always account for the body. For the nervous system. For the long fluorescent hours in hospital wards. For the way time stretches, distorts, or presses against the… Continue reading
-
Morning. Coffee. Birdsong.
There’s something beautifully Irish about the way morning begins. Before traffic. Before emails. Before the news. Just the thin grey light over hedges and fields—and the blackbird breaking the silence. When I wrote this dawn chorus poem, I was thinking about that ancient rhythm: robin on the post, wrens in the ivy, curlew calling over… Continue reading
-
Thanksgiving on the Midland Line
There are journeys we take because we must, and journeys that quietly give something back to us along the way. For me, the railway through Ireland’s Midlands has become both—a path to healing and a moving window onto beauty. This poem is a small act of thanksgiving: for tracks that carry me to care, for… Continue reading
-
The rainbow on my wrist.
From Monasterevin’s quiet stopThe morning train rolls west;Past cattle grazing by the line,And rooks that guard each nest.We cross the Barrow’s silver span,The viaduct below;A hare breaks cover in the reedsAnd watches as we go.In Port Laoise-bound and drifting thoughtsI catch a sudden grin—A stranger nods as though they knowSome secret held within.In town, the… Continue reading
-
Terrace. Neighbours. Gloom.
This poem is a quiet meditation on belonging. Set against the soft pulse of a sleeping terrace, it listens closely to the unnoticed life of the night — cats threading the dark, a fox passing unseen, an owl offering its steady call. In that chorus of small, living presences, the speaker finds not isolation but… Continue reading
-
A Sunday kept in Love
A Sunday Kept in Love began as a reflection on an ordinary Sunday shaped by absence, devotion, and small, faithful rituals. The poem gathers simple domestic details—the batter left waiting, the organ lifting prayer at eleven, a familiar café table with one chair open, two cats keeping watch at home—and discovers in them a love… Continue reading
-
Rule. Dawn. Praise.
This hymn and stained-glass image are inspired by Chapter 13 of the Rule of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict, in which he sets forth the reverent ordering of the Divine Office at Lauds on ordinary days. Rooted in the rhythm of psalmody, canticle, Gospel praise, and litany, the work reflects Saint Benedict’s vision of a… Continue reading
AnglicanCommunion, AnglicanTradition, Benedictine, BenedictineRhythm, BenedictineRhythms, BenedictineSpirituality, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, ContemplativePrayer, DailyDevotion, DailyOffice, EmbodiedPrayer, Faith, FaithAndHistory, FaithInAction, FaithInTheEveryday, HeldInLove, Hymnody, HymnWriting, InclusiveChurch, Ireland, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishReflection, IrishSpirituality, jesus, LiturgicalLife, LiturgicalReflection, LiturgicalRhythm, ModernMonasticism, MonasticWisdom, NeuroDivine, NewHymn, NewHymns, NewSong, OraEtLabora, Pilgrimage, Poetry, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, QuietCourage, QuietMoments, QuietWitness, Reverence, Routine, RuleOfLife, RuleOfStBenedict, SacredRoutine, SacredSong, SacredSpaces, Sanctity, ScriptureAndStillness, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection -
Richard. Window. Watch.
In the deep hush of night, wrapped in turquoise warmth, I sit and breathe while Richard keeps his faithful vigil beside me. I sit upright in Andrew’s chair,The window open wide;My coughing stirs the early air,Yet Richard stays beside.Wrapped in a soft Sherpa’s hold,A teddy‑bear‑like hug,I brace against the night‑time coldWithin its gentle snug.Across the… Continue reading
-
Holy. Queer. Desire.
For many queer people—especially those of us who are neurodivergent—the search for connection has often unfolded in the margins: in late-night conversations, in coded glances, in apps that both liberate and exhaust us. Our longing has been shaped by secrecy, by rejection, by comparison, and by the fierce hope of finally being seen. This hymn… Continue reading
-
Front room fire
The fire within the front-room glows,A quiet, tender light;The kitchen stove would warm the house,But needs more wood tonight.I know I should step out and fetchA bundle from the yard;Yet here the flames breathe soft and low,And rising feels too hard.But Andrew, steady, kind, and sure,Will bring the firewood in;He’ll light the stove and stir… Continue reading
-
A hymn about Grace in humble things — “In quiet parks at break of day” (CM)
The hymn reflects on discovering God’s presence in everyday moments, emphasizing the beauty of ordinary experiences that reveal grace and the gradual manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Continue reading
-
The Cupboard Apparition
I searched the house from room to room,My heart a tightening thread;For Richard, steadfast tabby guard,Had vanished from his stead.I called his name through shadowed halls,Checked every chair and beam;For only Niamh would play at hide—For Richard, such a dream.Yet still no whisker met my sight,No sentinel in place;Just silence where his watchful eyesWould guard… Continue reading
-
Andrew, this is you.
Some love stories are written in grand gestures. Ours has been written in endurance. This Valentine’s Day, I honour fifteen years of partnership with Andrew—and ten years of civil marriage later this year—not because the dates fall now, but because love that has lived this much deserves to be named whenever the heart nudges. Our… Continue reading
AnglicanBenedictine, Christianity, ChronicIllness, ChronicIllnessCommunity, CompassionInCare, Contemplation, Dialysis, DialysisLife, DialysisSpirituality, EmbodiedPrayer, Faith, FaithInAction, FaithInTheEveryday, FindingConnection, health, HeldInLove, LGBTQStories, life, LiveWithADisability, NeuroDivine, Poetry, PoetryOfPlace, QueerIrishVoices, QueerLove, QuietCourage, QuietMoments, Reverence, SacredRoutine, SacredSpaces, Sanctity, SmallMercies, Spirituality, SpiritualJourney, SpiritualReflection -
Stubborn Grace
For months I’ve reached the platform wellBefore the train draws near;Ten minutes early, every day,A quiet, steady year.But this one morning, thinking sureI’d make it just in time,I let that margin slip away—A single, harmless crime.Yet frost lay sharp along the rails,The timetable turned sly;It came a minute swift and strange,And left before my eye.I… Continue reading
-
Two Sentinels.
Brown Tabby I take my post beside his chair,moon silver on his hair;the window breathes a colder air—I taste it, sharp and spare.He shifts beneath the blanket’s weight,the cough begins to climb;I fix my eyes upon the darkand measure out the time. White Cat I rest beneath his blue-bright crown,lamplight along his face;his breathing lifts… Continue reading
-
Stop. Start. Stay.
Not every journey is straight. Some of us live by detours. Some of us measure time in appointments, recoveries, resets, and the quiet courage it takes to begin again. This new hymn was written from within that kind of landscape. It blesses the roundabout and the restart. The traffic light on a rain-washed street when… Continue reading
Autism, AutisticFaith, bible, Christianity, ChurchOfIreland, Contemplation, Faith, FaithInAction, FaithInTheEveryday, god, Hymnody, InclusiveChurch, IrishAnglicanVoice, IrishHymnody, IrishSpirituality, jesus, LiturgicalReflection, NeurodivergentFaith, NeurodivergentTheology, NeuroDivine, NewHymn, NewHymns, NewSong, Poetry, PoetryOfPlace, Prayer, QuietMoments, SacredSpaces, Spirituality
NeuroDivine 