Rain after midnight

The house an island of stillness
looming large above the strandline of deserted streets,
blind windows sleeping in the holy silences of night.

Rain begins softly, gently,
Distillate of starless sky;
Sprinkled benediction from the whispering clouds
Kyrie eleison

I am washed and made clean,
I am lulled by the rhythms in the darkness.
Christe eleison

While the grey world sleeps
I am restored;
One by one I shed my skins
Until the inner creature shadows the threshold,

Man-beast
(body echoes to the pulse of rain)
And man-spirit (soul singing in the empty air).

Kyrie Elyson

(c) A McN


We are losing touch with the rhythms around us. The ancient liturgies were rhythms of reflection and contained in themselves rhythms and metres of great beauty.
Kyrie eleison - God have mercy
Christe eleison - Christ have mercy
Kyrie eleison - God have mercy.
The rain brings its own rhythms and its own midnight mercies to the unsleeping.