Poem 717 – Wipers Required

Dec 1, 2025Jan 8, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

Today I shared a miserable, cold, grey day
with a family that I’d not met before.
I drove, to see them, heavy teardrops descending
across the screen, obscuring my field of view.
No doubt there had been other rivulettes
running across their faces, but as we talked
forgotten memories were dusted down
and family jokes revived from photographs.
These led us to a place of hopeful joy
where streams were stilled and hopes restored, and as
the Sun began to rise, I said farewell,
leaving hopeful that they were lightened too.

Today two worlds I occupy collided as I visited a friend from my gaming circles who’d asked if I could take the funeral for his dad.
(01.12.25)

Poem 716 – The Heavenly Flock

Nov 30, 2025Jan 8, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

First Sunday of Advent, a late afternoon walk.
After a month of stillness, the air is thick,
filled with the raucous call of avian chatter.
The reason for their talk, the cause of all this conversation? Could it be that the birds
also anticipate the birth of Christ, God’s Son?
We walk on by, hearts lifted by their song.

The bird song this evening was noticeably louder.
(29.11.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Jon Sailer on Unsplash

Poem 713 – Thursday Morning, Late November

Nov 27, 2025Jan 8, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

Thursday morning at eleven o’clock. The cars
all have their automatic headlights on
to lift the lethargy. It does not work.
A pensive mood infects the air and even
the sun is tentative. It seems afraid,
a fearful suitor, reluctant to commit.
Before too long the hopeful Christmas lights
will shine, and maybe that will lift our eyes,
but for now, like Simeon, we’re forced to wait
and wonder if the Son will ever rise.

Walking home this morning I was struck by the car lights…
(27.11.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Dawit on Unsplash

Poem 711 – One Month to Go (A Minister’s Predicament)

Nov 25, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

So many tasks and services,
completing them is a constant doubt,
I’m caught between an anguished shriek,
and a merry dance and joyful shout.

And yet I love this time of year,
I love the reason for its cheer,
the coming birth of Jesus Christ,
Immanuel, God’s Son with us.

His birth that night in Bethlehem,
to a teenage mum and carpenter dad,
accompanied by the angels and
glad shepherds who to the manger ran.

What is the reason for their rush?
That Christ had come for the likes of us,
no, not just kings but everyone,
Love lifting us to the Holy One.

I’ll take a breath and dive on in,
I’ll give my all to follow him,
what else is there for me to do,
for him who lived for me and you?

And so I lift my voice and sing,
One month to go! One month for Him!

Whilst working tonight on grant applications for our church redevelopment project and various Christmas preparations, I noticed the date. Perhaps the rhyme makes it a bit twee, but cut me some slack, with one month to go, there’s a lot on my plate!
(25.11.25)

Poem 707 – The Preacher’s Task

Nov 21, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

The preacher’s task is wrapped in mystery.
At first it seems straight forward, simple, but
On this familiarity there falls
A veil that covers what was clear before.

Then we are left to wrestle for the heart,
To twist and turn until we’re spinning, lost
Under the many layers of meaning,
And there we’re called to stay until we’re found.

Sometimes epiphany is hard to win.
We fight into the night and drag it out,
With courage bravely born of hope, refusing
To settle for another easy road.

At other times we turn to write but even
Before the pen is in our hands, the words
Become alive, a pulse that drives them fast,
A living stream that flows out of the book.

I’ve spent the decades preaching, and even now I find it an exciting yet elusive art.
(21.11.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash

Poem 704 – Prayer Meeting

Nov 18, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

Tonight we gathered:
Different faces on the screen,
From different places,
Different nationalities
And IT capabilities,
Different occupations,
Expectations, theologies.
Tonight we gathered,
United in our hope and faith
And prayed,
One family in Him.

Tonight The Connexion, the family of churches I belong to, gather online for prayer. It was wonderful to see the family again so soon after Conference.
(18.11.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

Poem 696 – The Little Things

Nov 10, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

A look of recognition,
A smile across the room,
A name remembered, used
In conversation’s flow.

An asking after mamma,
A joke about the wine,
Then checking in to see
That everybody’s fine.

The little things add up
To greater than their parts,
A trick for all to learn,
This is the waiter’s art.

We’ve been treated by Serkan and his colleagues at the restaurant here in Marmaris. They have given a real masterclass in how much difference small touches make. Thanks gents!
(10.11.25)

Poem 695 – Necropolis

Nov 9, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

Behind stone doors the dead sleep on,
two thousand years and more of slumber.
They’re waiting for the trumpet call,
but what’s another year to them?

Their clothes now hang long out of fashion,
the colours faded out of sight,
their tongue has fallen still, their names
forgotten to the mists of time.

Imagine if they woke today to
this world they wouldn’t recognise,
where billionaires fly out to space
and knowledge lives in webs online.

Where hearts aren’t weighed at judgement time
but swapped if ailing to save the living,
and gold’s exchanged for virtual digits
that dwell in plastic cards of credit.

But then they’d take another look
and smile that boney smile again,
as those that have still rule the roost,
humanity has barely changed.

On our Dalyan boat trip on the 7th, we passed the Necropolis. The ‘residents’ were buried some two and a half millennia ago. Life now is surely very different and yet, somehow the same…
(09.11.25)

Poem 684 – Unaware

Oct 29, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

Stepping out from safety’s bounds towards
The unfamiliar, outside the manicured lawns,
The Father carries the Son within his arms.
The stillness strange, all sounds ring out unreal,
An eerie feel pervades the morning air.
A squirrel seems surreal, a beast at large.
But from his seat he has no cares, the child
Has eyes only for his Father’s face, the two
Absorbed in conversation’s gleeful flow.
One points, the other laughs, they pass my bedroom
Window, both unaware that they have roused
My soul and stirred my weary heart with hope.

Walking in the last morning of Conference today I was more than weary; as always it has been demanding. The passing sight from my window picked me up, however, a glimpse of the love The Father has for all his children.
(29.10.25)

Poem 683 – It Is Finished

Oct 28, 2025Jan 5, 2026 / BenDQ / Leave a comment

The deed is done,
the audience won, I hope,
the words delivered
without a stumble,
(well just a little one
when I became distracted).
And now I’ll sleep with thoughts
of friends and family in Him.
It wasn’t good enough,
it never is, and nor am I,
but He is all we need.

For the second year running I ended up stepping into the gap when a speaker couldn’t make it to our annual Conference. A late night scrawling turned into a poetry gig with a message – a first public ‘reading’ of my poetry.
(28.10.25)

Ode for the Day

An experiment in poetic doodling

Spirituality