Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Prologue

Well we got here
Not quite a motley crew
Could it be a pilgrimage
Of the many and the few?

Then as guided we realised
It was Chaucer’s starting point in Southwark
of Canterbury Tales.

Well as I said
Perhaps it takes all sorts
But as a struggling poet
Where my work cannot yet be bought?

However as this Sceptred Isle is fine
Our starting point where beholding
Shakespeare lent a hand
And on this day the weather is divine!

Part I

Well probably I am impure
But finding myself as it were
On a pilgrimage towards an open door

Yes, we all yearn for the stuff of knowledge
And a book is open for us all
Free will of religious contemplations
To battle against fate’s machinations.
As I find myself in Southwark
Which has strengthened my poetic search
At this time of spring – I call it poet-season
Full strong Christian belongings
And I am here!

Part II

I have found myself here given circumstance
Meaning to find myself
There is a majesty of history
Sometimes Christianity helps when things are
not yet clear.

But to find it all through history
And believing is believing, for God’s sake!
And so Southwark Cathedral was for me an
open gate
A centre of excellence where we migrate
Where Roman Catholic enters with Church of
England to congregate!

Part III

You know when we meet on our escapade
I feel something of a unity of the scripture
Jesus would never have wanted a divided Christianity in his name!
Let’s make haste to a Christian University of the same
I am Roman Catholic in colour but Church of England in mood!
Ecumenicalism should be something standing true!

Part IV

There is something about London these days
In a funny strange way
Sometimes its poets think back to the old
reliable William Blake
I for one do not cease from mental fight for
instance

As if we shall find a Jerusalem in London Town
You know because we all know as Londoners
That it happens here.
Southwark Cathedral: a good starting point
therefore
And a promotion of clear crystal thought!