Member Bernie Miles writes from Australia:

It is now six weeks since these devastating fires swept across Victoria on Black Saturday. So many of us have been touched by people we know who were affected or who gave help and hope to the many who suffered as a result of these fires. One heartfelt response that touched the team at Campion was a poem by Marlene Marburg, our resident poet that I would like to share with you.

Ours



There are no shoes, no walls or boundaries.
Hot, black feet stand equally
on the ashen face of earth,
where mountain ash last week
made worship easy. Today


spindly charcoal arms reach
from embers to a clear blue sky.
All looks well in Doncaster,
but thirty minutes north east,
a fire licks with legion tongues,


feather and fur, possession
and possessor. It mocks,
spitting fire four kilometres down wind,
random as the massacre of Hoddle Street.
There is nothing to be done but


bare the soles of feet and
fear the ground of earth and urn,
listen to its lone and dull voice;
the cry from somewhere in hot breathless smoke.

Five persons huddle

in the front seat of a ute, disconnected
from everything that doesn’t matter.
My God, this country holds the souls of only those

who can stand in ash and flood;
who feel chaos draw the deep shared moan.


Today the community of Marysville start the journey home to what remains of their community and homes and our heartfelt prayer goes with them. Many other communities and individuals now struggle with rebuilding their lives and their homes.

If you know anyone who was affected by the bushfires in Victoria and would benefit from spiritual direction and retreat time, please contact secretary@campion.asn.au.