Poems from the Sermon

Want to read those poems mentioned in my Trinity sermon?

You can find James Weldon Johnson's poem THE CREATION here.

You can find Joseph Addison's hymn THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH here.

Here are some others:

Once
By R. S. Thomas (1913 – 2000)

God looked at space and I appeared,
Rubbing my eyes at what I saw.
The earth smoked, no birds sang:
There were no footprints on the beaches
Of the hot sea, no creatures in it.
God spoke. I hid myself in the side
Of the mountain.
As though born again
I stepped out into the cool dew,
Trying to remember the fire sermon,
Astonished at the mingled chorus
Of weeds and flowers. In the brown bark
Of the Trees I saw the many faces
Of life, forms hungry for birth,
Mouthing at me. I held my way
To the light, inspecting my shadow
Boldly; and in the late morning
You, rising towards me out of the depths
Of myself. I took your hand,
Remembering you, and together,
Confederates of the natural day,
We went forth to meet the Machine.

From Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

We are dressed in the scaffold of creation:
in seeing—to recognize all the world,
in hearing—to understand,
in smelling—to discern,
in tasting—to nurture,
in touching—to govern.
In this way humankind comes to know God, for God is the author of all creation.

From Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

"In this vision he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought "What may this be?" And it was generally answered thus: "It is all that is made." I marveled how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: "It lasts and ever shall, because God loves it."