Glimpsed in Passing

These poems come from the beauty of the glimpsed moment ? a precious jewel held for a short time amid the pain and sorrow of the world, then let go into the bigger picture ? The beauty is what we remember, what gives the moment its significance. It's the way it's always been: to reach the sea, to stand watching, waiting; to know that nothing can be unravelled to its core but is like reflecting where wild flowers gathered in a vase, framed by a shore cottage window make of themselves a sea-wide subject: the beauty of things together. A blackbird sings and the song echoes in fragments of memory. Joy Mead is a member of the Iona Community and the author of The One Loaf, Making Peace in Practice and Poetry, Where are the Altars?, Words and Wonderings and A Way of Knowing, all published by Wild Goose Publications. She has been involved in development education and justice and peace work and occasionally leads creative writing groups.