This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Gaby Roslin.
This might not sound fantastic to anyone else, but I was dead chuffed the other day when I read that a previously unknown poem has been found in the files at Leeds University. It’s not just any poem, though – this one was written by the great CS Lewis (of Narnia fame). Apparently, he wrote it to say thank you to a couple with whom he had stayed in Manchester in 1935.
Can you imagine that? Getting a poem as a ‘thank you’? I’d love it. Words can say more – and more eloquently – than a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates, can’t they? Well, I think so.
I’ve been thinking about this because today is my daughter’s birthday. I’m not going to tell you how old she is – that’s her business. I’d love to write something for her that would be special and which she could be proud of. And that’s where I get stuck. I read a lot of poetry, but I’m rubbish at writing it.
So, I turn to the Psalms, looking for inspiration. The Old Testament Psalms are made up of 150 poems – some long, some very short. They cover the whole range of human experience and emotion. “God, why am I in a pit and you seem a million miles away?” “When will the suffering end?” “I’m bursting with gratitude and praise, and the words keep pouring out.” “I look at the stars and my mind is blown by the bigness of the universe and the enormity of God’s love.” Stuff like that … but they say it more beautifully.
In fact, my daughter was the inspiration behind the engraving in my bishop’s ring: “Love that fires the sun keep me burning.” The words of a song by my favorite musician. Just a few words, but they encompass both the huge cosmos and little me.
And that’s how the words should work – opening up the imagination and the passions, not closing everything down to blunt statements.
Anyway, happy birthday to Melanie, my daughter. And how about this from me?
“Roses are red, violets are blue, words full of color are my gift to you.”
(I told you I was a rubbish poet.)
