Easter

An Easter Villanelle

The sound of silence sings on Easter Day!
Love dawns anew to end our human night –
Death’s triumph does not have the final say.

Our fears and swagger make it hard to pray,
God’s voice of love is drowned by selfish might;
The sound of silence sings on Easter Day!

Th’eternal Word has walked with feet of clay
To meet and touch us even though we fight;
Death’s triumph does not have the final say.

The cross’s nails were hammered in to slay
The lamb of God who shares our mortal plight:
The sound of silence sings on Easter Day!

Noon’s blackened sky and borrowed tomb made way
For dazzling light – eternal day so bright –
Death’s triumph does not have the final say.

The grave is blessed and now has lost its prey
As loss and tears and pain are put to flight;
The sound of silence sings on Easter Day!
Death’s triumph does not have the final say.

© Neil Thompson 2023

incandescence

no trick of the
light
or the past and
present
truth burns
love irradiates
renews
but never
on my terms
the stone
I place
cannot move
lest I be
overturned
I cannot
see
only the
risen
can be
seen
there is
no sense
only
no thing
and all

© Neil Thompson 2022

Joy beyond words

(for the Parish of Rochester & Mary Jeffreys who commissioned this hymn)

Joy beyond words breaks with the dawn of Easter,
crucified lord, side pierced by sword, raised from the grave!
Death rules no more for Jesus Christ is risen –
Sing praise and thanks to heaven for God’s saving love!
Alleluia! alleluia!
Choose life earth’s sons and daughters, sing Alleluia!

Doubt and belief fill life in equal measure –
both bear a truth, there is no proof: we can’t know all.
Jesus is Lord in gift of Easter’s triumph:
minds lit by mystery’s presence in faith, hope and love.
Alleluia! alleluia!
Choose life earth’s sons and daughters, sing Alleluia!

Live God’s great truth in Easter’s risen saviour!
Now all can see love sets us free from fear and death.
Each life is blessed by hope and history meeting
as God in Jesus Christ conquers pain, sin and loss!
Alleluia! alleluia!
Choose life earth’s sons and daughters, sing Alleluia!

© Neil Thompson 2019

Easter Hymn

Easter breaks our broken living:
God incarnate, bound to die,
Rises, hate and sin forgiving,
Friday’s depths are set on high!
He whose power creates the ages
From a tomb remakes all time:
Lost and found in scriptures pages –
Calvary’s Christ defeats our crime!

Easter heals our frightened feelings:
Hope and light dispel the night
Of a world whose selfish dealings
Hide God’s justice from our sight.
Now released by Saviour’s rising,
Humankind from death set free –
Grave’s decay no more disguising
Love’s eternal victory!

Easter frees our partial thinking
With a gift beyond mind’s powers
Jesus’ risen life now linking
Endless truth with passing hours;
Death and love are joined together
In a mystery so bright –
Bringing hope and life for ever
In this resurrection light!

Easter warms our mortal coldness
With God’s fire beyond the grave –
Kindled by the Christ whose boldness
Gave his life the world to save;
Now that life, as grace and wonder,
Lights a world that failed to hear
Victim’s cry that rent asunder
Power of death and veil of fear!

© Neil Thompson 2008

Easter Hymn

Death is dead and love set free –
Easter breaks this earthly prison;
All death dies on Calvary:
God’s own Son is now arisen!
Resurrexit!

Nails that pierced Christ’s hands and feet
Can no longer hold or pain him.
Father’s love brings death’s defeat –
Jesus lives: triumphant victim!
Resurrexit!

He who died redeems the lost –
Lives for those whose lives are broken.
Heals our hurt whate’er the cost –
Death’s cold sleep is now awoken!
Resurrexit!

Doubts and fears grip human hearts –
Reason’s truth needs Spirit’s vision;
Darkness from the light departs –
New sight comes from Christ arisen!
Resurrexit!

Dare we live his life today?
Let God’s love heal sin and error?
Take our wills, O Christ, we pray,
Save our earth from need and terror.
Resurrexit!

Tombs of self break, risen Lord,
May your grace restore our living.
Give us what we can’t afford:
Spirit’s joys in human giving!
Resurrexit!

© Neil Thompson 2005

Easter Hymn

Spark in darkness kindles light –
Risen life puts death to flight!
Easter breaks all deadly fear,
Christ redeems each cry and tear.
Truth is freed from death’s despair:
Meaning breathes in heaven’s pure air;
Human years are blessed today
With God’s life which lives for aye!

Doubt and death cloud human days,
Sapping hearts and will to praise.
Easter’s gift fills every void:
Death is breached by love uncloyed.
God is with us as a friend
Sharing life that has no end.
Jesus lives as Christ and Lord
Claiming us – our world restored!

God’s new life is here today,
Challenging our fractured way –
As we grasp to gain and own,
Placing self on Jesus’ throne:
Easter breaks the death of greed,
Humankind can now be freed
From the pains of history’s years
To a future saved from tears!

Empty tomb of Easter’s morn
Gives each life a hope re–born
Which the risen Christ bestows
On our world of pain and woes.
Here is love redeeming all
Lost and broken by the Fall.
Sing with joy – for God’s own Son
Victory over death has won!

© Neil Thompson 2004

Easter Hymn

Sing of truth and triumph blazing:
Christ is risen from the dead!
Earth and heaven are joined in praising
Heaven’s King and Church’s Head.
Mortal dust and human clay
Raised in Christ on Easter Day.

Servant’s towel and victim’s nailing
Now prevail o’er death and shame;
Worldly rule and values failing
In the fire of Easter’s flame.

Darkened tomb can hold no longer
Heaven’s love in death laid low.
Jesus’ crown has proved far stronger
Than the powers we trust and know.

Frightened souls no longer cower –
Dawns the light of Easter Day.
Calvary’s tree now bears the flower
Of Christ’s life that lasts for aye.

Leave the tombs of selfish living:
Look for Christ in neighbour’s need.
May the world find joy in giving,
As from fear of death we’re freed.

Easter changes every story:
Yours and mine – the whole worldwide.
Human life is bound for glory
In Christ’s endless Eastertide.

© Neil Thompson 2002

Easter Hymn

Darkness and light contain our mortal living:
Each plays a part in how we live our days.
Yet death’s great darkness quenches all life’s giving
Unless faith’s light reveals God’s saving ways.

Calvary’s pain is found in lane and city –
Cell, camp and ward, betrayal, lie and greed –
Jesus the crucified, divine love’s pity,
Nails, words and systems: all can make God bleed.

Then dawns the light as Easter breaks death’s prison,
Strange and disturbing, breaching reason’s laws.
Love’s truth alone proves Jesus Christ is risen,
Releasing all his world from death’s cruel jaws.

Now in an age when progress leads us, asking
Is there a God whose love can bring us life,
That holds us through our doubts and never masking
The truth and pain of human mental strife?

Here is the faith that lives in Christ for ever;
Raised by the Father from the cross and grave.
Here is the love which death can never sever:
Creator’s Spirit born in Christ to save.

© Neil Thompson 2001

Easter Resurrection Praise ~ a Round

Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
Death is dead! Death is dead!
Life for all in Jesus. Life for all in Jesus.
Evermore. Evermore.

© Neil Thompson

Taizé round ~ Jubilate Deo

Christ is risen!
He has conquered all our fears – and death!
Alleluia!

© Neil Thompson