Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Sanctuary: Poems by Martyn Halsall
    Sanctuary: Poems by Martyn Halsall
    Sanctuary: Poems by Martyn Halsall
    Ebook66 pages34 minutes

    Sanctuary: Poems by Martyn Halsall

    By Martyn Halsall

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A collection of poems that emerged from prize-winning poet Martyn Halsall’s year in residence at Carlisle Cathedral in 2013. Based on his observations, notes and interactions, they reflect the wonders, joys and rhythm of cathedral life, patiently celebrating the presence of God in a society where the divine is as optional as poetry.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCanterbury Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2014
    ISBN9781848256774
    Sanctuary: Poems by Martyn Halsall

    Related to Sanctuary

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Pilgrimage Pieces

      Aug 13, 2021

      For more than 400 years brave souls from every corner of Britain regularly set forth on journeys that might have taken them hundreds of miles from their homes in an age when travel beyond one’s own parish boundary seemed remarkable. Destinations incl

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘And Did Those Feet...’

      Apr 8, 2020

      ‘And Did Those Feet...’
      8 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 4, 2018

      In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Meaning Of Sovereignty

      Oct 5, 2022

      ON the morning of the day the Queen died, I stood assembled with a dozen friends, new and old, in the nave of All Hallows by the Tower, the oldest church in London, with its Saxon stonework and Roman-era paved crypt, and talked about the Royal Way. I

      2 min read

    • Article

      Air Rights

      Nov 1, 2020

      The French Church—never much on looks, red brick leaningin the direction of Romanesque—settled into modest circumstanceshow many decades on West 16th?Nothing divine in the details,veneer peeling from doors nevermeant for here, never open. No light,ev

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Devil Is In The Detail

      Nov 22, 2023

      The Devil Is In The Detail
      6 min read

    • Article

      A River Runs Through It

      Aug 15, 2019

      A River Runs Through It
      9 min read

    • Article

      Take Me To Church

      Jan 21, 2020

      Take Me To Church
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Ways Of The Dead

      Sep 8, 2023

      The Ways Of The Dead
      4 min read

    • Article

      Faith Healing

      Jun 19, 2023

      Faith Healing
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Celtic Cross Country

      Sep 5, 2019

      In Celtic Cross Country
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Garden Of The Imagination

      Jan 5, 2022

      A Garden Of The Imagination
      5 min read

    • Article

      Corndon Hill

      Nov 5, 2021

      Corndon Hill
      3 min read

    • Article

      High Willhays

      Dec 31, 2020

      High Willhays
      3 min read

    • Article

      Pilgrim’s Progress

      Aug 19, 2023

      Pilgrim’s Progress
      4 min read

    • Article

      Guiding Lights

      Mar 21, 2022

      Guiding Lights
      5 min read

    • Article

      Catching The Light

      Oct 14, 2022

      Catching The Light
      4 min read

    • Article

      Last Word

      Mar 9, 2022

      Last Word
      2 min read

    • Article

      In Celtic Cross Country

      Oct 17, 2019

      In Celtic Cross Country
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ben Bulben

      Jan 21, 2022

      Ben Bulben
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Watery Graveyard Revisited

      Apr 27, 2023

      A Watery Graveyard Revisited
      2 min read

    • Article

      Life On The Road Thorfinn Barton

      Sep 1, 2022

      Starting from Cape Wrath, Thorfinn has embarked on an epic journey on his steel hardtail. His aim: “To follow trails of connectivity to cultures and ecosystems foreign to the Scotsman’s eye, and leave nothing behind me but memories and tyre tracks”.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Scaling Heart-attack Hill

      Oct 25, 2023

      Scaling Heart-attack Hill
      4 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      The painting is of a door, its wood so warpedwith moisture it cannot close. It stays ajar leaving a sliver of light—enough to suggestsomething sweet and almost unreachable behind the door—and you sit in yourroom working on the bills or those comforti

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Sanctuary

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Sanctuary - Martyn Halsall

      Sanctuary

      Poems by

      Martyn Halsall

      Canterbury_logo_fmt.gif

      Copyright © Martyn Halsall, 2014

      First published in 2014 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

      Editorial office

      3rd Floor, Invicta House,

      108–114 Golden Lane,

      London

      Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

      13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,

      Norfolk, UK

      www.canterburypress.co.uk

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.

      The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,

      to be identified as the Author of this Work

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

      A catalogue record for this book is available

      from the British Library

      978 1 84825 675 0

      Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

      Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon

      Contents

      Preface

      Prelude: Leaving St Bridget’s

      Foreign Correspondent

      Close

      Akeland

      Here Lyeth Ye Bodys

      Gargoyles

      Entrances

      Runes

      Poets’ Corner

      Re-entering Afghanistan

      Jetsam

      St Antony and the Projectionists

      Mirror

      Estimating Zechariah

      Ribs

      East Window

      Fag Break

      Haiti

      Meeting Gabriel

      Sanctuary

      Outsider

      The Line

      First Reading

      The Redundant Psalmist’s Sudoku Theology

      On Preaching

      Lighthouse

      Congregation

      Shadowlands

      Crossings

      Catching the Greys

      On Unicorns

      Ark

      Staying in Air

      The Shopping of the Magi

      Nine Carols: Part-song

      Olaf’s Nativity

      Yew

      Two Kings

      The Night Watch

      Drawn Swords

      A Case for Dragons

      Resurrection: Evening Prayer

      Resurrection: Night Bus

      Quartets

      R. S. Thomas Visits the Cathedral

      Gaze/Imagine

      Crow Music

      Mass for Hands

      Watching the Eucharist

      Intentions

      Postscript: Wing

      Notes and Acknowledgements

      To Isobel:

      wife, mother, teacher, priest;

      who believed in it.

      Preface

      Cathedrals seem to be among the scarce places where church congregations are growing, perhaps because they offer place and worship for people to encounter God without being corralled into ‘parish strategies’, or dragooned into impersonating submarines or orang-utans in ‘action songs’.

      Cathedrals magnetise visitors without demanding immediate membership, and inherent commitment. They introduce the Christian past into the secular present, and patiently celebrate the presence of God in a society where s/he is felt often to be as redundant as a coal miner, or as optional as a poet.

      Cathedrals intrigue, so people respond. They are generous in many ways, including their encouragement of discerning God through the arts. They take risks, often using the arts experimentally in creative theology, venturing into the radical and the prophetic.

      They provide spiritual hospitality to the jaded; a place with the risen Christ to re-imagine the familiar, and dare fresh potential. They share space to renew and redeem lives, in the companionship of the Holy Spirit. They offer sanctuary.

      Most of these poems reflect aspects of the life and faith of one cathedral. They were drafted, after a life in journalism, in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1