Day 597 of the daily poems, and our poet Simon Haines pursues the theme of The Sacred to the sound of cherubic voices ringing out across a cathedral close.
Cathedral voices
Leaving loathsome poverty,
corruption, greed and slaughter,
we pass through an ancient arch
into the close where a peaked attendant
gives us a handwritten permit.
Later we’re in a peaceful room
with fifty angelic children
wearing bright but simple clothes,
there to practise choir songs:
songs of love for their friends,
their family and, of course
for God.
Their cherubic voices
serenely clear
ring out across the close,
below the spire
which carries their songs
to heaven.
It moves me to tears
and tempts me to stay,
but our permit is expiring.
We return through the arch,
past the peaked attendant,
to loathsome poverty,
corruption, greed and slaughter.
Simon Haines
a slightly adapted version of the poem of the same name
in Simon’s recent collection “Another day in paradise.”