by Alwyn Marriage

There are
three ways of preserving the good things
we want to keep: immersing them 
in brine, in olive oil
or wine.

At the Council of Chalcedon
scholars grappled with the nature of their Lord
unwilling either to discount his full humanity
or, even worse, diminish his divinity.

Augustine used the following metaphor:
on a cup of water, pour
olive oil and see how separate
the two remain. Now do the same
but substitute red wine for oil.
As they mix, you cannot see these elements
as separate, it is all water and all wine.

Alwyn Marriage’s twelve books include poetry, fiction and non-fiction — most recently, The Elder Race (novel) and Pandora’s pandemic (poetry). Her new collection, Possibly a Pomegranate, will be published in Spring 2022. She has given readings all over Britain and Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. Formerly a university philosophy lecturer and CEO of two international literacy and literature NGOs, she’s currently Managing Editor of Oversteps Books. www.marriages.me.uk/alwyn

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