Open me – 
   ear-crust closed me,
   cut me off

tied tongue 
   strangled words
   to a choking croak.

Prise open
   my rib-casket
   swell my lungs
   with your word – 

breathe your worlds into me.

Open me!


-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

The final session has been rescheduled: it will now be at 7pm on Sunday, 30 August

In this session, we will turn to the experience of the the Son-God and the Spirit-God.

You can join this meeting via Teams, which works exactly like Zoom. You don’t need the Teams app to do this – any modern web-browser should be fine. Click this link to join.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

While these events are free and open to everyone, they are only possible thanks to your generous support. If you would like to make a contribution, you can donate via this link.

A question to our readers

Following the sessions on the Trinity, are there other topics you would like to cover in online events? Let me know by writing a comment or sending me a message.

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Editorial

That in the earthly light, the heavenly light vanish not

These words from the Michaelmas Epistle speak directly to our time, when the sub-earthly glow of screens has almost replaced daylight for many people. From early morning to late evening, many human beings’ gaze is drawn down to these miniature portals, which promise to connect them with the wider world but so often deepen their isolation.

The eclipse that many of us experienced in August gave us the opportunity to experience a world where the light of the outer sun had been obscured. Perhaps a spiritual gaze would discern a similar eclipsing even on the brightest summer day.

Michaelmas arrives at the crossing point of the outer and inner light. In the Northern Hemisphere, the physical sun recedes in the autumn sky and the natural world withdraws its life forces into the earth, asking us to examine what light we truly live by. In the Southern Hemisphere, the challenge is to maintain the inner light even as the outer light grows stronger.

The Epistle calls us to ‘higher divining’. The relentless stream of information that meets us, threatens to dull our ears to this call. If the earthly light fills our attention, the heavenly light does not cease to shine, but it is eclipsed.

Confronting this condition does not mean a retreat into nostalgia. Michael calls us to stand firmly within the world with awake and clear consciousness. We need to commit again and again to turn away from the sub-earthly glare, to quiet the clamour of technological noise and to cultivate the inner quiet where the call can resound.

Can we cultivate the internal light that we need in order to look steadily at the splintered light of our age without fear or apathy? Only then can the earthly light remain our servant, allowing the heavenly light to spread out from our hearts.

Tom Ravetz

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The great hall
stage left:
   a boy
   tending flame – 
   a candle

centre-stage
the concert – 
crowning of the festival. 

   Frowning, he laboured – 
   with matches and blade 
   he gouged and cut and tipped. 

   He freed the flame,
   which rose

and we knew: 

Whitsun.


-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

The final session has been rescheduled: it will now be at 7pm on Sunday, 30 August

In this session, we will turn to the experience of the the Son-God and the Spirit-God.

You can join this meeting via Teams, which works exactly like Zoom. You don’t need the Teams app to do this – any modern web-browser should be fine. Click this link to join.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events are open to all. A donation is requested, which can be made via this link.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

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Shards – 
   shattered    light
splitting 
   off – 
         stilettos 
to pierce
      the human heart. 

banish:
   set bounds around 
      the tender space
   where freedom 
      can unfold. 

know:
   the gift – 
      their pain
   to be 
         a broken part;

pray:

         God
            be 

all in all


-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

The final session has been rescheduled: it will now be at 7pm on Sunday, 30 August

In this session, we will turn to the experience of the the Son-God and the Spirit-God.

You can join this meeting via Teams, which works pretty much exactly like Zoom. You don’t need the Teams app to do this – any modern web-browser should be fine. Click this link to join.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events are open to all. A donation is requested, which can be made via this link.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Broken 
in the gutter – 
reeking of spirits, alone, 
beyond reach of hope, or help

To those walking by
who wrestle with the question
to give and walk on, 
or to save - 

Pray:
Spirit, grant strength
to fragile flesh
as boots bruise 

Pray: 
Grant time
give courage
let him come
into himself 

-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

In this session, we will turn to the experience of the Father-God and the Son-God.

You can join this meeting via Teams, which works pretty much exactly like Zoom. You don’t need the Teams app to do this – any modern web-browser should be fine. Click this link to join.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events are open to all. A donation is requested, which can be made via this link.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. If you are getting unwanted messages, please let us know in the comments.

Press 
dense lines
   into paper. 
Build a cage
for thoughts.

Hear 
   a voice too familiar
   echoing.

Tear the pages – 
attention flutters wide
on scattered scraps.

Outside,

attend –
their words 
sounding 
   through


-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

In the next session, we will turn to the experience of the Father-God and the Son-God.

The link for the live stream will be sent out next week.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. If you are getting unwanted messages, please let us know in the comments.

A voice – 
cold    clear, 
certain

lurching stomach
tells me: 
wrong. 

A voice 
swells aflame,
conjures marvels
	
constricting throat 
tells me: 
wrong.

Listening deep, 
self stills, makes way: 

a voice not mine 
fill
chest and throat and mouth – 
sounding

truth. 


-Tom Ravetz

Three-part summer school

Starting this weekend

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is

Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God
The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting. If you are getting unwanted messages, please let us know in the comments.

My father told me
of lords from afar
who came with strange questions
and set court astir,
before they set out
on paths that faded
into the grey east.

He did not speak 
of what came after. 

Hearing that John preached 
the hope of a kingdom – 
I had him brought to me. 
I am not like my father;
I showed him favour. 

And he – he 
   he dared to say – 
   and I dared not – 
      until 
         she –
            until she 
               danced – 

-Tom Ravetz

Forthcoming events

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is

Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God
The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting.

I have been scorched 
and frozen in turn.
I was there, when sky folded back
torn open by a wing. 

My life has been spent 
in earth’s dark prison
and this cell holds 
no fear for me.
Soon I shall be free. 

Only one thing I ask,
that I might hear it still
with ears of flesh and blood: 

Are you the one? 

-Tom Ravetz

Forthcoming events

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is

Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God
The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

School had taught me: 
analyse! break down!
The earth is one planet
whirling in emptiness. 

Then they gave me a garden. 

The plant lives 
on one flat horizon.
The sun makes his journey
from rising to setting,
drawing behind him
a blessing bow. 

When someone showed me
the world through a plant’s eyes,
my heart swelled with longing
to think for myself 
just one such a thought. 

-Tom Ravetz

Forthcoming events

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is

Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God
The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting.

The plummet that 
pulls heaven down
tearing through 
reality’s smooth surface

What throat could 
   bear the voice to witness?
What eye 
   be wide enough
   to behold the bird
      aflame?

-Tom Ravetz

Forthcoming events

Feeling the Divine

Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is

Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God
The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

We are grateful to those readers who have forwarded these poems to others. Our audience is growing! If you would like to help, use this button:

Share

And if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do that with this button:

Subscribe now

Finally, apologies for the requests to upgrade your subscription to a paid one, which were included without our knowing in every email, including those occasional ones where we invite people to do this! We have now changed this setting.

Multitudes of voices
in the worldwide wilderness,
the marketplace of certainties – 
‘Get your freedom here! This way, salvation!’
– while in the desert of uncertainty,
the underworld within,
seductive voices, alluring lights –
which is Lucifer and which is He?
which is Satan, which is me?

Who am I to choose a way?
to know the truth? to carry life? 

In the evening, I make my offering,
not pigeons, lambs or bulls – 
only fluttering doubt,
bleating weakness,
blundering loss of direction.

Night: I am taken 
up to the ocean where all ways lead,
where there are no voices, only Word
and all lights pale in the sun, the Son.

In the morning: here it is, inside me, 
enchanted into human form,
my companion in the desert,
our companion in the world, 
a still voice, singing:

My joy, my love, my darling, thou
my sister, brother, companion, thou
my neighbour, friend and stranger, thou
the heart of love – to you I bow.

-Peter Howe


The first line of the final stanza is borrowed from The Christ Child's Lullaby, a Hebridean song found in Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael.

Peter Howe lives in Glasgow, is retired and writes poetry. He is a freelance editor and proofreader, and an editor of Perspectives. See: www.peterhowepoetry.co.uk

You can hear Tom Ravetz’ poem, Generation, that he wrote for his congregation this week here.

Forthcoming events

Feeling the Divine
Summer School on the Trinity Epistle with presentations, contemplative exercises and conversation.

On 26 July, 9 and 23 August at 7pm BST

The first session is
Conscious of our humanity – The experience of the Father-God

The link for the live stream is here.

The links for the following sessions will be sent out nearer the time.

We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration and deepen them by looking at the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

These events will be held as webinars on Substack and are open to all. A donation is requested.

An appeal to all our readers

As seems to happen with many Substacks, we have reached a plateau of around 250 readers. We are overjoyed that the poems reach so many already; we also wonder whether more people might enjoy reading them. This is the appeal: if everyone who reads this poem forwarded it to one person, our outreach would be increased.

Share

You can also share a link to the whole Substack, which has an archive of the poems.

Share Perspectives Magazine Substack

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Let us know if you have comments about the poems or suggestions about how to spread them further.

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Editorial

One of the great questions of our time is how to understand the balance of freedom and determination. No-one could deny that our personalities and our earthly experiences are determined in large part by our heritage: we are born into a language and culture at a particular time and our assumptions are shaped by the things that form us. However, the school of thought that everything is determined by the past – that if we knew the precise position of every atom at the Big Bang, for example, we could predict the whole course of cosmic history – is no longer as dominant as it was even 50 years ago. In reality, most healthy human beings have known privately for a long time that it is inadequate.

This issue of Perspectives explores this boundary. The articles point in various ways to the necessity of a ‘conscious understanding’ that can no longer rely on the habits of the past. Whether we are considering the nature of truth in our personal lives or the evolving roles we inhabit in society, the call is to move from being mere spectators to becoming active participants in a reality that is still unfolding.

Christward Kröner challenges us to examine the ‘force field of truth’ in our daily interactions. He reminds us that credibility is not an inherent trait but a hard-earned harmony between words and deeds. When we fail to align our inner truth with our outer actions, we create ‘devastating and lasting scars’ in the spiritual community.

This theme of transformation extends into our understanding of human identity. Ilse Wellershoff–Schuur explores the ‘Quiet Revolution’ of gender roles, moving beyond rigid, historical caricatures toward a more fluid, individualised humanity. She suggests that as we develop, we are called to constantly reshape our existence in a new understanding of freedom, where the spirit is recognized as beyond gender.

The bridge between these internal struggles and the external world is often found through the power of the word and the arts. Wherever we try to bring matter into movement, we are seeking a dialogue between two worlds that have become separated.

Tom Ravetz

Paid subscribers can download the pdf below. If you would like to change to a paid subscription, follow this link to our homepage and you should see something like this at the top of your screen.

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We will take as our starting point the words spoken with the three crosses in the Act of Consecration, deepening our experience through exploring the Trinity Epistle and Creed.

Session Details

• Dates: 26 July, 9 August, and 23 August

• Time: 7pm BST …

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we parked askew
and hurried up the steps
leaning grasses brushing our shoes
and then:

I saw the riot of clover daisies orchids
and bees in attendance

sheer profusion forced my gaze wide

humming life 
lifted my ribs – 
late or not 
I was alive

-Tom Ravetz

An appeal to all our readers

As seems to happen with many Substacks, we have reached a plateau of around 250 readers. We are overjoyed that the poems reach so many already; we also wonder whether more people might enjoy reading them. This is the appeal: if everyone who reads this poem forwarded it to one person, our outreach would be increased.

Share

You can also share a link to the whole Substack, which has an archive of the poems:

Share Perspectives Magazine Substack

And if you’ve received this poem from a friend and you’d like to get one every week, please subscribe

Subscribe now

Let us know if you have comments about the poems or suggestions about how to spread them further.

Leave a comment

Who do I speak to? 
   the beggar on the street?
   the servant at my table? 
   the stranger in distress?

We should not have left the rabbi
alone and tired, exposed
to filthy foreigners.

We do not share a cup
with those outside the covenant.

We do not consort
with women. 
We know who counts.

Give me to drink!

-Tom Ravetz

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I
Our shape, our smell
that clings to cloth we wear
as inmates know – 
shore up our sense of self. 

That summer’s day, 
stripped at river's edge, 
we shivered – 
naked to the wind. 
Then the plunge, the smart, 
held breath bursting:
we came up. 

II
Stripped of the winding-cloths 
of comfort, familiar lives – 

they go, naked,
those who stand against steel;
who speak from frozen mouths;
who scribble truth on pages
   doomed to fall at censor's feet – 

Their plunge
is for us all.


Trinity Sunday, 31 May, 2026
* Pars pro toto: Latin, 'the part for the whole.' 

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These notes are offered as a companion to the poems, not as explanations that might close off exploration. They gather some of the biblical, theological, and imagistic resonances that were present while I was writing, and may help readers find more in the poems than they did on a first reading.

Following the course of the festival seasons, the poems move through descent, testing, loss, and re-forming, before opening toward breath, relation, and shared life. I tend to draft the poems a few weeks or even months ahead; then in the week that any poem is going to appear, I work on it more intensely. The thematic connections are not planned in advance; they emerge week by week. For example it was only as the Easter cycle was nearly complete that I noticed the fabric motif running through the poems. This allowed me to make some revisions to the earlier poems to draw it out more fully.

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ascended 

   where?

upon earth:

   hallow 

      the name:

         Lord.


-Tom Ravetz

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Some readers may be interested to learn that I have started using my personal Substack to develop thoughts for articles and courses. The first series will help towards an article on evil. You may be interested in reading the articles, and I would be delighted if you shared your comments and thoughts. The first article is available here: Thoughts on the theodicy

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