A century of poetry

Our church hosted a special day last week for those in full and part-time Christian ministry, recognising that they have all been under extreme pressure for some time, trying to support their flocks both during and after the pandemic. This conference was designed to give them, in turn, some deep and refreshing spiritual ministry.

While preparing for the conference, one of the worship leaders wrote a poem loosely based on the 23rd psalm, and asked me if I could design and print a card using it. The poem talked about ripples, so I found an image of ripples in a pond on the internet, downloaded it and then typeset the words of the poem over the picture. I printed the photos off and mounted them on watercolour cards, ready for them to be handed out to the delegates. The conference went really well, and the day was very much appreciated by the 80 or so people who attended. 

The conference leader, who is a very old friend of ours, sent me an email on Friday to thank me for the cards, and mentioned that she’d sent me a book, which she hoped I didn’t already have. It arrived this morning, and I was just blown away. To say she knows me well would be a massive understatement! Not only did I not already have this book, I didn’t even know it existed! An accomplished poet himself, in this book Rowan shares 100 poems from other poets spanning the past 100 years with his personal accompanying meditation after each one. It’s a perfect present, and I can’t wait to start reading it.