September the 21st is St. Matthew’s day, so here, once more, is a sonnet for the Evangelist, drawn from my sonnet sequence Sounding the Seasons. Like my sonnets for the other three evangelists, it draws on the traditional association of each evangelist with one of the four living creatures around the throne of God. As I repost this in the midst of the current refugee crisis the final couplet seems more pressing than ever, as one aspect or another of things unfolding around us bring some facet of the gospel into even sharper focus.

As always you can hear it by clicking on the title or the ‘play’ button. I am grateful to Rebecca Merry for the image above.

Matthew

http://audioboo.fm/boos/970001-st-matthew.mp3

First of the four, saint Matthew is the Man;

A gospel that begins with generation,

Family lines entwine around the Son

Born in Judea, born for every nation

Born under Law that all the Law of Moses

Might be fulfilled and flower into Grace

As every word and deed in time discloses

Eternal love within a human face.

This is the gospel of the great reversal

A wayside weed is Solomon in glory

The smallest sparrow’s fall is universal

And Christ the heart of every human story

‘I will be with you, though you may not see

And all you do, you do it unto me’