Patrick Connors’ Poetry

Patrick Connors’ Bio

  • Patrick Connors first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map.
  • Other publication credits include: The Toronto Quarterly; Spadina Literary Review; Sharing Spaces; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire.
  • He has also had work featured in Spirit Fire Review; Tyndale Poetry Anthology (2013); Altarwork; Agape Review; The Wordsmith Journal Magazine; and The Poet Magazine, Faith Issue.
  • His first full collection, The Other Life, was released in 2021 by Mosaic Press.   
  • His most recent chapbook, Worth the Wait, was released in 2023 by Cactus Press.
  • His latest collection, The Long Defeat, was released in 2024 by Mosaic Press.

Thanksgiving
After “The Canticle of the Creatures”

“Certainly,‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything
it contains is his.’” – 1 Cor 10:26 (GW)

O Lord, I pray
you will hear these words and bless them,
even though I am not worthy to address
you by any of your most holy names
or have you enter under my roof.

I praise you for the trees, especially at this time
of year. Leaves evolve from green to coppery red,
canary yellow, then find their fulfillment in brown.
You always give us signs to remember you,
and to know when we must rest.

I thank you for my friends and my family
and my friends who are like family.
They comfort me in the cruelty of this world,
ground me when I think I’m too important,
and teach me of your unfailing love.

I praise you for the abundant blessings
of dear Mother Earth, who nurtures us
every day and sustains us with the harvest,
the symbol of your Divine Providence.
If only we would learn to treat her better.

I thank you for free will. One of the greatest
of the many gifts you have given us. May
we perceive the depth of its power, the
awesomeness of its responsibility,
and choose to always be grateful.


All that it Means

Then, when the time came, he took his seat at table with the apostles, and spoke to them, “With all my heart I have longed to eat this Passover with you before the time comes for me to suffer. Believe me, I shall not eat the Passover again until all that it means is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” - Luke 22:14-16 (PHILLIPS)
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I worship Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of the world. 
The whole world. Not just the people who go to the same 
churches I do. I worship Jesus Christ because I believe 
He is the truth. Truth which seeks to lead us home.

Although I worship the author of perfection, I recognize 
I do not worship perfectly. But I try to do the best I can.
And I trust that every one of our brothers and sisters,
through various traditions, faithfully do the same.

Heaven would be a boring place if we all dressed and sang
and prayed to God in exactly the same manner. As long 
as our intentions are for God, they give Glory to God, 
and we will eventually be close to that perfection.

When it is time to join the eternal banquet, we will stand 
at the door of the hall, admire each other, and wonder 
if we also can enter. Then the Lord will open the 
door to greet us, and we will be relieved.

We will give thanks and praise and sing many songs
in many tongues of one accord. And we will laugh
and cheer and hold each other with trembling 
arms while we cry for the last time.
Broken

Kinstugi is a pottery technique
using lacquer from an urushi tree 
mixed with gold powder to fix ceramic 
cups and bowls. With patient mastery, 
beloved objects are restored.

We have all been broken. Chipped, 
cracked, smashed and shattered by the cruelty 
of this world. The ideal has been fractured–
damaged dreams fragment like loose pieces 
spinning in a kaleidoscope.

The potter takes the shards and cleans them. 
Urushi lacquer is applied, left to dry, then 
sanded. The process is repeated several times,
until gold powder completes the filled-in scars. 
What once was ruined is now an artefact.

When disillusion has been overcome, 
and all the pieces put back into place, 
we will share our scars with one another, 
and rejoice at becoming more precious 
than we could ever have imagined.

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Telemarketer’s Prayer

In Reference and Deference to Those I am Calling

Heavenly Father, I pray for you to lighten their burden

that their day may be better than mine from this point

and that I may have the chance to serve them again.

                        In Jesus Name,

                                                Amen.

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Ash Wednesday

Novelty calendars with the days marked off by chocolates so sweet you may be a week past the schedule. Holiday shopping so labour-intensive you must eat at a restaurant or have dinner delivered because there is no way you could possibly cook and clean after all that.

Get-togethers with lifelong friends to give their children presents you hope they will appreciate. Workplace festive season celebrations where you try to smile and be part of the crowd.

Ash Wednesday, like the first Sunday of Advent, is the beginning of a period of self-reflection.

But Lent doesn’t have the social rituals or commercial distractions that Christmastime does.

Lent is when we repent of the sins we have made and will make again. It is a time of darkness after the darkest weeks of winter which follow the earthen birth of true light. It leads to the remembrance of the death of that host of true light to compensate for our sins.

The ash is the remnant of the branches burned after last year’s commemoration of Palm Sunday, when Jesus the Christ rode into town on a donkey. The sign of the cross marked on our foreheads is proof we are ready to accept that the Lord has forgiven us.

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