Nayler Sonnets

x. As it bears no evil in itself

If soul be soil what may not grow therein?

The indifferent ground cares not what plant it feed;

Both the good grain and the lean poisoned weed

Out of its fecund womb their life may win.

Can there then be a soil that grows no sin,

That nourishes no thought of pride or greed,

And bears no plant not fruiting for the need

Of the good gardener and his humble kin?

      Not in man's world, where saviours do not save;

      Where painless, glib goodwill for humankind

      Serves but to rub the sores it cannot bind,

      And Liberators leave man more a slave;

      But out of harrowed heart and broken will

      Ground is prepared at last that grows no ill.

(This is the tenth of the Nayler Sonnets - 'There is a spirit' - first published by the American Quaker Kenneth Boulding in 1945 :Fellowship Publications, New York)

Read at lunch time meeting for worship in Mount Street on Wednesday 16th October 2013

Accession 9, Box 4

Not the death but the certificate.
Not the marriage but the ring.
Not the children but the photograph.
Not summer but the shell.

Not the body but the lock of hair.
Not the meal but the menu.
Not birdsong but the feather.
Not home but the lost key.

Not the journey but the boarding pass.
Not the tree but the dried leaf.
Not the good suit but the button.
Not years but diaries.

Not the lover but the love letter.
Not the sea but salt.
Not the poem but words and ink.
I have lived. Here is the proof.

Vona Groake, July 2013

Part of a small, temporary exhibition in the John Rylands library, Manchester