Watford Quakers

What do we need to buy this week?
Or should that be,
What do we want to buy this week?
Let me just see.

Fruit and veg first:
Bananas
Should they be ripe for eating now,
Or rather green to last the week.
Should I buy Fairtrade,
Or is organic healthier?
Do the fairtraders use pesticides?

Apples
That’s easier –
English ones are in season,
And taste the best too.
Shouldn’t be too many food miles
In a Cox’s pippin.

What else for variety?
Share the culture of our neighbours
And choose rambutan or mango?
Or think of the food miles,
And choose English pears?
Although seedless grapes are
very cheap this week…..

Vegetables now.
Carrots first.
Economy to save money.
Or organic with no need to
peel away the pesticide residue.
Organic taste better too.

Turnips? Leeks?
In season, low food miles,
Not organic though.
Still we can’t get everything right,
I’ll take some of both.

Baby corn?
It’s delicious and
Brightens a stir-fry –
But air-freight from Thailand?
It’s come a long way.
Has tinned food come by sea?
Does it use less fuel that way?

Now I’d better move on:
Coffee – that’s easy!
Fairtrade we all know
is what we should buy.
But I should use decaff.
There’s some that’s organic
but no promise that trading was fair.

Flour for bread needs to be strong.
But white for pleasure,
Or wholemeal for health,
Organic or stoneground or
Even unbleached.

Chill cabinet next
Low fat cheese would be best
For our waistlines, you know,
Though we do like a bit of
Blue Danish as well.

A chicken to roast,
Now let me just see,
Special Offer!
or corn- fed
or free-range – that’s for me!

And Branston to go with
Cold meat or cheese sandwich,
We all like a little –
But what’s this I see –
It’s made by Nestlé
Those poor third world babies
How can I buy this?

Now, is there anything else….
A little treat perhaps.
A bar of chocolate –
Oh good this bar’s fairtrade and organic!
At last an easy choice –
Milk or plain?

Stephanie Grant Feb 2001

You look at me as if I wasn’t there
But my transparency is deceptive.
I can blur the truth when dirty or misted
And conjure up untruthful reflections.
I have many different forms:
ornate and decorative
(Useless for looking out of),
Simple (providing shelter from the elements)
And even partly-opaque
(Dissuading ‘peeping toms’ as you relieve yourself).
I am not just a view out, perhaps an escape from boredom,
But also a view in: an abuse of privacy
Making you a goldfish bowl.
At night you cover me up
As if ashamed of what you are doing, what I will reveal.
I am like thin air, but I am a collection of vague memories
(And cobwebs), faint images stored within my panes
You don’t realise this.
Look out.

Owen Everett

Waking up – to find it didn’t happen
Waking up – to find it really did!

Seeing the celandine, that little sun,
First to adorn the roadside in the Spring;

The greening of the hedgerows after rain;
The gradual blueing of the April woods;

Picking blackberries with purple hands,
And squirrelling them away for wintry days;

Wrapping the new-picked apples in their trays,
While reading irresistible stale news;

Playing silly games and singing songs;
Losing myself in stories, sharing poems –
And finding Rumi addicts on the way;

Following coincidences where they lead;
Daydreaming; letting be, just letting be…

Jenny Senior, December 2008

Here I am again, sitting with others around this ancient table.
There are a few shuffles and coughs, then quietness descends.
Some lose themselves in the beauty of the flowers on the table,
others have their eyes tightly shut.
One person gets up and takes a Bible or book to read.
Concentration resumes.

My imagination escapes,
The sunlight dancing with the shadows on the floor
become the joys and sorrows weaving through life’s journey.
The breeze rustling the trees outside the window
changes into the spirit of God wafting gently amongst us.
The sound of the children playing happily in the next room
turns into the songs of angels.

Look at the expressions on people’s faces,
serenity, expectation, pain.
I try to envelop them in peace and love from across the room.

I wait and pray, trying to empty my mind,
leaving room for God to speak.
The quietness changes into a thick, tangible silence.

Someone feels inspired to stand and speak.
They briefly pierce the stillness with their words.
I absorb their thoughts and mingle them with my own.
The loud silence wraps itself around me again.

The Elders are shaking hands.
The meeting is over.
How could an hour slip by so quickly?

CJP 2007

We have nothing in the window
We have nothing in the store
We have no thing to sell

We put books into the window
We put leaflets on the stall
We have something to tell

We ask you in to meet with us
To come and do nothing with us
We have something to share

When we meet in emptiness
Make a space in busy-ness
We find some other there

We put no price on what we give
Just offer a way to try and live
We have God’s Love to share

Stephanie Grant (October 2008)