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Poems

they didn't tell me about the grey

Published 1 min read

The essay

A lone tree in a green valley under a grey sky.

Bad poetry seems to be the order of the week friends (sorry).

A continuing theme of the last few years has been realising life's indeterminacy and navigating personal disappointments - both my own and those of friends'.

At the end of my year in London I had to write a reflective essay, in which I wrote -

"I think all change involves loss, and there have been times where my changing faith has felt like losing faith, especially where it has introduced a disconnect between my experience of faith and that of other people's."

What's written below is an echoing of this from within the change of the past couple of months, and in the context of getting to know someone who has lost their own faith.

they didn't tell me about the grey

the way

the black certain lines you paint as a child

drip and blur.

they didn't tell me about the grey,

the way

the monochrome dulls as it turns to

overcast.

they didn't tell me about how

the patterns of truth can be hard to

distinguish -

or the way grief will soften out colour and

fade out edges.

So I tell myself about the grey

the way

losing old reference points,

only means there is more than black and white,

and there is a world open to being coloured in.

If something here stayed with you, I’d love to hear what you think.

2 comments

These comments were left on the earlier WordPress version of this blog and have been carried across to read. New comments are closed.

  1. Alan A. Malizia: Contagious Optimism! Co-Author

    With change comes loss. That is true. Something is lost. But, have we let a good go? Faith is in all that is good. That which is worth having faith in no matter what change may come. Different environments and fellowships come with their own characteristics which will unavoidably influence us. But is it enough to shake our faith. Now if it is faith in the New York Mets then that faith is not well placed for they will fail as much as they succeed. And so it is with those around us. To put faith in the fallible is not wise. This is why God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses on stone tablets and not something that was easily degradable. He meant it to last for the ages because it was a manual to right living and the way to eternal joy. It was His word and therefore incontestable. Never lose that faith. For when the ways of the world fade with each passing fancy, it is the wise person who places their faith in that which is written in stone. -Alan

  2. The Silent Voice

    This is a really good piece!

A place for thoughts worth keeping.

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