From his most recent poetry collection titled, After Prayer, Malcolm Guite, offers his readers an invitation and a call to listen for rumours of resurrection

Invitation

‘I see you in the russet woods

And on the windy lea,

I hear the rhythm in your blood,

Now won’t you dance with me?

Your heart is dark and overcast

And you can scarcely see

But grief would soon be overpast

If you would dance with me.’

‘I cannot lift my weary feet

Or turn my heavy head

For I am clasped and spoken for

By one amongst the dead,

If I should turn, if I should hear

The voice that calls so free

I should betray the vanished love

Who waits beneath for me.’

‘Oh she is gone away from you,

You may not follow now,

The night is cold, the door is closed,

You cannot keep your vow.

She cannot heed your crying now,

She cannot feel your pain,

Nor kiss the sorrow from your brow,

She will not come again.

The dance is for the living, love,

The dance is for the free

The dance is in our loving hearts,

Now won’t you dance with me?’

A Poet’s Spring Benediction 

With each unfolding seed, with every Spring,
He breathes the rumour of his resurrection,
As birdsong calls your hidden heart to sing.
So may this season be his benediction,
To lift your love, and bid your prayer take wing,
To thaw your frozen hope, to warm your mind,
For spring has come! Can Heaven be far behind?

Malcolm Guite has launched a new YouTube channel: A Spell in the Library.

“Invitation” by Malcolm Guite is found in his poetry collection published in his marvelous book, After Prayer.

The Spring Benediction was commissioned by Lancia E. Smith for Cultivating and The Cultivating Project. 

The featured image of Malcolm Guite is (c) of Lancia E. Smith and used with her glad permission for Cultivating and The Cultivating Project. It was shot in Wales at Gladstone’s Library. 

Malcolm Guite

Poet, priest, academic, and Life Fellow of Girton College Cambridge,  Dr Rev’d Malcolm Guite travels extensively throughout Great Britain and North America, to give lectures, concerts and poetry readings. He is the author of more than a dozen books, and hosts the marvelous YouTube channel, A Spell in the Library.

malcolmguite.wordpress.com/