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Front Page News

By R. L. M.

Verger to Visitor
"Yes, that's the poet whom you learned at school,
And that is X, the famous statistician.
You often see them, sitting in a corner,
And Kings and Queens and Princes of the Blood.
Yes, you can have a look around.
Tread softly! This is holy ground!"

Births, Deaths and Marriages
Heralds and huntsmen and beasts of the field
Embroider the font and the cloth of the altar.
Lost in the annexe
The tombs of Crusaders
Dream of last battles
Alone in the gloom.
Why, why should the light, like a terrible sword,
Flash by the font and the cloth on the altar,
And pierce the Crusader
Walled in the gloom
Dreaming of battles
Fierce on his tomb?

In Memoriam Notices
Like Keats or Shelley, Tennyson or Yeats, Or Tasso,
Hymn Mrs. Miggs, who polishes these plates With Brasso!
Every day, she starts her work at eight And thirty;
She brings her Brasso, he the weather bright Or dirty.
She's far too old; she's feeble in her mind, And creaky.
Look closely at the golden plates—you'll find They're streaky.
Don't sneer or scold, please don't be wild at her, Or scorning:
For Christ came up the aisle and smiled at her, One morning.
Bring myrrh and wine, her hair with meadow flowers Adorning!
For Christ came up the aisle and smiled at her, One morning.

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Lost and Found
Solid are the old pews
As the virtues of the kneelers:
See the rounded hollows
Ground by a billion knees!
Not beam or rafter or archway pays
Homage to seekers and finders, only these.
O sing of those who came and went, of those
Who came desiring, those who went away
Shining in their unutterable faith!

Personal
Curtained with whispers, this impartial cell
Nurtures the seeds of secrets, raising sighs
To words like orchids. Nothing restless here
Unhidden or unheard, and all remembered.
Hear the great sound!
The roll and surging peal
As the swollen roof re-echoes like a drum
Nerve-naked hungerings of heart and limb!

Visitor to Verger
"Don't you remember?
Suddenly someone played the organ,
And the Church flowered, and the petals fell around us,
And we were filled with the music, and the scent of the flowers.
Here, here was the world! O here the essence and meaning
Of all things wonderful and wanted, strange and strong!
It was a long time ago, and in the Springtime,
And you have probably forgotten."