One of the voluntary roles I have is as a trustee of The Haven, a local charity that provides counselling services. I’m not an expert on counselling but I do bring my background in IT and information security to the table to support colleagues more learned in the counselling field. Today we had a quiet day at the nearby St Mary’s in Nanpantan. Our focus was on the psalms and, after the section drawn from Psalm 51, I was struck by the phrase “open my lips”. That seemed like a call to “o pen my lips” and write some poetry, which resulted in this:

O pen, my lips.
Pour forth whatever inky flood
Is needed to undam my soul.

O pen, my lips.
Speak to beauty, life and growth
The pleasant places God gives to dwell.

Bird song, Breeze.
Leaves exult in slow applause.
Creator’s work, and working,
Rolling even past purple hills.

Unpin my eyes to see
Upon my soul set praise
And, o pen my lips, to utter
Utter praise.