Steep Song
Between the weald, hangers and downs
All Saints, our Church grows in the land;
Habit and faith, prayer and work,
All Saints, our Church, guides like a friend.
Seasons of Farm: growth, harvest, fallow,
Tithes paid in lambs, field-beans and pears,
Seasons of Church: Advent, Lent, Easter,
Cycles of months turn into years.
Organ and altar, pulpit and kneelers:
Wild strawberry, kestrel, stag beetle, wren,
Cool in the summer, cold in the winter,
Built by human hand and brain.
Patchwork of buildings grows with its people:
Slow as the moss and lichen on tombs,
Dogrose and bramble, wasp, hops and jay,
Each new accretion fitting the times.
Nine hundred years of lives lived in Steep,
Marriage of love, spirit and hope.
Reed, foxglove, adder; gorse, bluebell, plantain,
Church, priest and parish; land, village folk.
Seasons of life: birth, marriage, burial,
Mourning mother and wedding guest,
O how glorious is the kingdom
Wherein all the Saints have rest.
Lucy McIlwraith
This poem is an excerpt from a a book of poems titled Christmas in Steep. It was written and illustrated by a group of parishioners in Steep as a fundraiser for Petersfield Food Bank.
The book is available from One Tree Books price £10
Leave a Reply