London Life Archive

Weekend Poem

On Our Wedding Anniversary

4 November 2016

For Shaun and Ursula

On the Blessing of their Union

St. Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, London W2

Here, beneath the Scorpion sign,

May your hands and hearts conjoin,

Hence, ill omens of the season –

Whiff of gunpowder and treason;

Hag and goblin, be not seen –

Revellers strayed from Hallowe’en

Most of all, be absent, you,

Brash, discordant bugaboo,

Asmodeus – back to hell,

At my verses’ fish-like smell!

But - it’s just a rustic story –

From the gates of purgatory

Stream forth holy souls, released

In this misty month – to feast

On the sable blackberry,

Just for thirty days, they’re free.

Can you hear them sing? – the theme:

“Nothing is Love can’t redeem –

Not one false step of the past –

Here below, while time shall last,

As the sun and planets track

Round the clock-faced zodiac

And beyond, above, the free

Citizens of eternity,

Issued each with harp and crown,

Rank on glittering rank, look down.”

John Heath-Stubbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Heath-Stubbs