top of page
Search


Billy
He’d seen things no soul should ever see, heard things that still rattle in his dreams— not just bombs in Belfast, but shrapnel lodged...
Jon Swales
6 days ago3 min read
1 view
0 comments


The Sermon She Didn't Know She Needed
She sat at the back. Near the radiator. That’s where she always sat— if she came at all. Scarf wrapped tight around her wrist where last...
Jon Swales
Jun 152 min read
2 views
0 comments


Grace May yet Win
Ed used to crouch outside Morrisons— not always asking, just hoping someone, tipsy from a night out, might drop a fiver and not ask why....
Jon Swales
Jun 153 min read
0 views
0 comments


I Hate God (But I met Jesus)
It was raining. Sideways rain. Hard, mean, Leeds rain. The kind that says: You’re not welcome anywhere. She stood outside, soaked,...
Jon Swales
Jun 32 min read
7 views
0 comments


Held
She doesn’t talk about it much. Not the room, not the silence, not the way her body still remembers what her mind wrapped in thick fog....
Jon Swales
Jun 12 min read
7 views
0 comments


Wild Goose & Turkey Cold
It’s January 2014 — cold enough to chew through bone. We meet in the place named for the one who slew the dragon, but the beasts still...
Jon Swales
Jun 12 min read
0 views
0 comments


She Came in Swearing
She came in swearing— trackies on, a tinnie downed, tired eyes. A friend from the pavement, roll-ups in her pocket, playfulness in her...
Jon Swales
May 292 min read
7 views
0 comments


Dancing in the Sea (A Lighthouse Poem)
She was alone. Not just lonely— but alone. Mid-fifties, no calls, no candles, just silence and the ache of being forgotten. Her world:...
Jon Swales
May 292 min read
3 views
0 comments


He Wrote the Date
He Wrote the Date (for the lad who once lived in the car park opposite Leeds Uni — a true story framed poetically) He slept beneath...
Jon Swales
May 232 min read
0 views
0 comments


Reading Revelation at Cottingley Crem
It was spring. The blossom tree stood, quiet, its branches soft with new life. Bluebells dotted the ground, fragile, waiting for...
Jon Swales
May 192 min read
6 views
0 comments


He Set Himself on Fire
He Set Himself on Fire (A true story framed poetically) He had ink all over him— names, dates, wounds. But it was the teardrop by his...
Jon Swales
May 192 min read
3 views
0 comments


Ninety-Nine and the One That Got Away
He reads it in a doorway, knees hugged to chest, back cold to the brick. Gospel half-torn, creased and smudged, given by Lighthouse,...
Jon Swales
May 191 min read
5 views
0 comments


Beatitudes: Eight Lighthouse Reflections on the Beatitudes
Lighthouse Beatitudes When Liberator saw the crowd, he went up a mountain and sat down to encourage his people. He opened his mouth and...
Jon Swales
Mar 2919 min read
35 views
0 comments


#5 The Lord’s Prayer: A Lighthouse Reflection
'For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.' At Lighthouse, we say these words together — sometimes...
Jon Swales
Mar 73 min read
13 views
0 comments


#2The Lord’s Prayer: A Lighthouse Reflection
Give us this day our daily bread Each Sunday at Lighthouse, after cries for the kingdom to come, we move to the next line of the prayer...
Jon Swales
Mar 33 min read
5 views
0 comments


#1 The Lord’s Prayer- A Lighthouse Reflection
Each Sunday at Lighthouse, after a burst of heart-felt, honest, and holy prayer — the kind that comes when people have nothing left to...
Jon Swales
Mar 34 min read
22 views
0 comments


The Dream
Night spills across the earth like oil, thick with the hush of waiting. I slip between waking and the deep unseen, where time is...
Jon Swales
Feb 163 min read
2 views
0 comments


A Voice from the Streets of Leeds: Where’s the Baby in All This?
I’m sat here in a doorway on one of Leeds’ busy streets. People rush past, their hands full of shopping bags, their faces lit by the glow...
Jon Swales
Dec 21, 20243 min read
1 view
0 comments
-3 A Lighthouse Story
The forecast said -3°C. Cold enough to kill someone who isn’t prepared. For anyone who knows the homeless—especially those who count...
Jon Swales
Nov 23, 20242 min read
13 views
0 comments


A Lighthouse Reflection: Beauty & Weakness
When I visited Peter—though that’s not his real name—I found him lying on the floor, paralysed from the neck down, waiting for an...
Jon Swales
Oct 12, 20242 min read
3 views
0 comments
bottom of page