DISARMED

FIRST LIGHT*

one

A sliver of cloud 
receives the first light

Those rocks are washed
and washed again

Orange and blue
wed on the horizon

the Norfolk Pine
points to God,

like a sacrament.


two

We make our pews
these sea-smoothed rocks;
all of us, monastic, seaward,
are copying words 
from the book of God.


three

It rises like the face of God
shines on our upturned faces;
this face we cannot look at,
yet cannot look away.

four

Ones and twos,
twos and threes,

are trailing home,
like pilgrims.

                       Tim Vanderstoep


* This poem won the 2004 Poetica Christi Press Poetry Competition.

FIVE MINUTES*

In five minutes this morning
the fuchsia changed
from dawn grey to faint pink
and the whole mass of the world
slowly somersaulted
towards the sun
carrying with it
me and my children
wanting Weetbix

  Cathy Altmann

* This poem was runner-up in the 2004 Poetica Christi Press  Poetry Competition