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Flowers and the Pump
I saw it— on the road from Reeth to Arkengarthdale: an old petrol pump, abandoned by time, leaning like a tired priest who’d forgotten...
Jon Swales
4 minutes ago2 min read
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He’s Seen the Wounds
He didn’t leave Leeds for a fresh start. He left because staying meant fear. The flat was chaos — tinfoil graveyard, door kicked in,...
Jon Swales
Jul 73 min read
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The Gospel of the Wild Messiah
The Gospel of the Wild Messiah He did not come robed in safety. He did not come crowned in gold. He came with dust on his sandals, blood...
Jon Swales
Jul 62 min read
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A Scream from the Hill: Glastonbury & Gaza
From Glastonbury a scream broke through— 'death, death to the IDF'— words, not nice, should have been silenced, but words. Should the...
Jon Swales
Jul 21 min read
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East of Eden: El Salvador
He spoke each night on the radio. Crackling across kitchens and darkened barrios, his voice walked through walls, lingered among the...
Jon Swales
Jun 302 min read
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East of Eden: The Last Sermon
East of Eden: The Last Sermon I. Bedside – Gospel She sat by his bedside— hospice light low, steady, the quiet sliced only by distant...
Jon Swales
Jun 303 min read
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East of Eden: Birmingham
Sometimes, not all the time, he doubts. The phone lights up— war in Iran, slaughter in Gaza, climate breakdown racing like a car with no...
Jon Swales
Jun 273 min read
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East of Eden: Blackpool
Once, he worshipped an angry God— the kind who answered before you even asked. A system, disguised as certainty. Grudem on the shelf,...
Jon Swales
Jun 273 min read
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Makros v. Jesus of Nazareth
Makros v. Jesus of Nazareth Gerasene District Court Case No. LK 0826-39 Filed: 22nd June, 33 AD Makros son of Philetos filed his...
Jon Swales
Jun 212 min read
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Gerasene
We meet in the back room of the synagogue. Not the main hall, too clean. Too many eyes. Here it’s dim, fold-out chairs in a circle, figs...
Jon Swales
Jun 212 min read
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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
Jun 173 min read
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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
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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
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The Quiet and Messy Revival
The Quiet and the Messy Revival They say there is a quiet revival — soft as breath on stained glass, a hush that Spotify, TikTok, and...
Jon Swales
Jun 82 min read
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The Search
‘We all are born into the world looking for someone looking for us, and that we remain in this mode of searching for the rest of our...
Jon Swales
Jun 72 min read
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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