St. Thomas Aquinas — Ham

St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church on Ham St., London

It overlooks the village pond
where cattle once drank deep,
rising white it calls to prayer
beneath a bell that summoned;
called children to the school.

Our feet trace theirs through lanes;
up the steps they climbed to class,
we kneel in pews where once desks
laid, before the sacrament.

Old walls evoke their voices
as we kneel in quiet prayer
in a village strung with kindness
in a world of haste and care.

New children raise their voices
to tell of what they’ve learnt,
not repeating tables, poems,
or letters on black slates,
but the life of Christ Our Lord.

Thomas’s image set into a niche
retells his life in wood
a humble Sicilian Dominican
who overhears our fears.

He wrote about the natural world,
look out and see our swans,
advised on debt, war and family
the cares that burned now.

– Carolyn O’Connell

View guest contributor Carolyn O’Connell’s bio HERE

Author: Jamie Dedes

Jamie Dedes is a Lebanese-American poet and free-lance writer. She is the founder and curator of The Poet by Day, info hub for poets and writers, and the founder of The Bardo Group, publishers of The BeZine, of which she was the founding editor and currently a co-manager editor with Michael Dickel. Ms. Dedes is the Poet Laureate of Womawords Press 2020 and U.S associate to that press as well. Her debut collection, "The Damask Garden," is due out fall 2020 from Blue Dolphin Press. View All Posts