Events at St Andrew's Wickford: Art exhibition, concerts, Unveiled

 

Our cultural programming at St Andrew's Wickford has already included an exhibition viewing evening, an excellent Open Mic Night, a conversation on art and theology with Revd Lauren Hart, and a day of arts and crafts workshops with live music. The forward programme for the Autumn has now been finalised and is as follows:

Unveiled is a regular Friday night arts and performance event at St Andrew’s Church, 7.00 – 9.00 pm, 11 London Road, Wickford, Essex SS12 0AN.

See below for our Autumn 2026 programme and http://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/whats-on.html for more information

Exhibitions, open mic nights, performances, talks and more!

Unveiled – a wide range of artist and performers from Essex and wider, including Open Mic nights (come and have a go!). 

Unveiled – view our hidden painting by artist David Folley, plus a range of other exhibitions.

Autumn Programme 2026

23 October (7.00 pm) – Poetry Evening. Jonathan Evens and Tim Harrold will share a selection of poetry from their own collections. Their creative writings have been published by Amethyst Review, International Times, Red Balloon Publishers and Stride Magazine.

6 November (7.30 pm) – ‘The Great American Songbook’ with Michael Horner and Isobel Gathercole. Pianist, Michael performs regularly across a wide variety of styles. Isobel is a jazz singer who has been performing at many of London's top jazz venues since 2014.

4 December (7.00 pm) – ‘To the New World & beyond!’. Hear Ken Porter from Basildon Heritage speak about local links with the Pilgrim Fathers and others who travelled to America from the area.

18 December (7.00 pm) - ‘An introduction to …’ Jonathan Evens will introduce the work of artists with which he has worked or about whom he has written.

These events do not require tickets (just turn up on the night). There will be a retiring collection to cover artist and church costs. See http://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/whats-on.html for fuller information.

In addition, we have great concerts planned from David and Friends (Saturday 17 October, 3.00 pm) and Twilight Boulevard (Saturday 14 November, 2.30 pm).

Our current art exhibition is Autumn & Winter: The Beauty of Letting Go - Runwell Art Club exhibition. Friday 11 September – Friday 18 December 2026, St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford, Essex SS12 0AN.

A group exhibition by members of Runwell Art Club. St Andrew’s is usually open: Sat 9am-12.30pm; Sun 9.30am-12 noon; Mon 2-3.45pm; Tue 1-4.30pm; Wed 10am-12 noon; Fri 10am-1pm.

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The Isobel Gathercole Trio - My Heart Stood Still.

International Times: Re-Awoken Stories

My latest book review for International Times is on 'Arthur: A New Life' by Amy Jeffs:

'Tales of King Arthur continue to enthral. Amy Jeffs’ retelling of Arthur’s story emerges in a similar time period to the four-volume epic in ballad form that the poet Malcolm Guite is currently undertaking in Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad. It has ever been thus, with troubled times in particular regularly calling out clusters of works about the once and future king.'

My earlier pieces for IT are: an interview with curator Jacquiline Creswell; an interview with the artist Alexander de Cadenet; an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of:

• Anish Kapoor at Hayward Gallery
• Flowers from the Graveyard by Michael McDermott
• an IMMERSE performance by Wilderthorn at Bradwell Chapel
• albums by Switchfoot, Jon Foreman and NEEDTOBREATHE:
• 'Walls and Windows' at The Minories in Colchester
• 'The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the birth of America's Culture Wars' by Isaac Butler
• 'Moving Pictures' and 'Closeups' by Steve Scott, 'Never Mind the Ballads Here's Nick Battle' by Nick Battle, and 'Blank Arcades' by Andrew Rumsey
• Michael Takeo Magruder -Reconstructed Landscape{s}
• The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s
• In Another World: The Four Seasons of Talk Talk
• Hulda Guzman: Please awake - asked Nature kindly' at Turner Contemporary;
• 'Devotions' by Lucy Caldwell and 'Catholic Modernism and the Irish ‘Avant-Garde’: The Achievement of Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, and Thomas MacGreevy' by James Matthew Wilson;
• the 'Stations' project from Dunlin Press;
• 'William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy';
• Joseph Arthur in concert;
• installations by Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen at Hayward Gsllery,
• U2's 'Days of Ash', Mumford and Sons' 'Prizefighter' and Moby's 'Future Quiet';
• 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland;
• 'Lux' by Rosalía;
• 'Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere';
• 'Great Art Explained' by James Payne;
• 'Down River: In Search of David Ackles' by Mark Brend;
• 'Headwater' by Rev Simpkins;
• 'The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art' by Jonathan A. Anderson;
• 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art,
• albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey,
• also by Joy Oladokun and Michael Kiwanaku;
• 'Nolan's Africa' by Andrew Turley;
• Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel;
• T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone;
• Helaine Blumenfeld's 'Together' exhibition,
• 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller;
• 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt,
• the first Pissabed Prophet album; and
• 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

IT have also published several of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

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Daniel Pemberton - Knights Of The Round Table.

Poetry Update

My first review of poetry for Tears in the Fence was of 'Modern Fog' by Chris Emery. My second review was of 'The Salvation Engine' by Rupert Loydell, my third was of 'For All That’s Lost' by David Miller, and my fourth was of 'Late Inscriptions' by David Miller. 

My poetry reviews for Stride include a review of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, a review of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, a review of Fukushima Dreams by Andrea Moorhead, a review of Endangered Sky by Kelly Grovier and Sean Scully, a review of John F. Deane's Selected & New Poems, a review of God's Little Angel by Sue Hubbard and a review of Spencer Reece's 'Acts'.

My poetry-related pieces for IT are: an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, plus reviews of: 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland; 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, and 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller. 

I have also published pieces on poetry at Seen and Unseen - a profile of the poet Theresa Lola - and the Journal of Theological Studies - a review of Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination by Malcolm Guite. 

For more on poetry, read my ArtWay interview with David Miller here and my interview with Rupert Loydell here. See also Rupert Loydell's interview with poet and musician Steve Scott. My own dialogues with Steve can be read here, here, here, here, and here. For thoughts on the links between poetry and prayer see here and here.

See also 'Connections and contemplation in poetry and prayer', a brief survey of the connections between poetry and prayer has been published by Amethyst Review. It looks at the connections between the two and highlights both poems about prayer and poems that are prayers.

My poems to have been published in Amethyst Review are: 'Prayer', 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'. I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. International Times have also published other of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

Several of my short stories have also been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

For more of my poems, see here, and for my poetic meditations, see here.

My key literature posts (including poetry) are:

• There were giants in those days (1)
• There were giants in those days (2)
• There were Giants in those days (3)
• There were giants in those days (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (1)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (2)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (3)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (5)
• The poetry of connection
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith?
• Jesus is having a moment in literary fiction
• Endo & Scorsese: Approaching Silence
• Contemporary Fiction and Christianity
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith? (2)
• Jack Clemo: The Invading Gospel
• Dealing with faith and with secularism is difficult but necessary now
• The poet’s eloquently passionate struggle at the junction of doubt and devotion
• Christian Arts renaissance: Major or minor?
• T.S. Eliot: Christianity, fragmentation and reconciliation
• Jesus Novels & Films: The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Acts of the Assassins and Jesus Novels
• Czeslaw Milosz, Oscar Milosz and Simone Weil
• Blogs: cryingforavision & Stride magazine
• Tasos Leviaditis: The Blind Man with the Lamp
• Religious concerns in Greek poetry
• Thomas Merton and Latin American poets
• American Catholic poets & writers
• Connections of Sister Corita Kent and Norman Nicholson
• Ernesto Cardenal RIP
• Czeslaw Milosz, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Oskar Milosz, and Aleksander Wat
• Faith, Mystery & Poetry
• Elizabeth Jennings & David Gascoyne: Mystical Experience and the Making of Poems
• Roots of the Catholic Literary Revival

See also 'Art and Faith: Decades of Engagement: Introduction, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

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Andrew Rumsey - The Memorial Service Order Of Friends.

Tears in the Fence: Review - Late Inscriptions by David Miller (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press)

My latest review for Tears in the Fence is of 'Last Inscriptions' by David Miller:

'each word used is significant because each word bears meaning. Miller leans on and stresses each word because they bear the weight of sorrow. Jebb says that Miller creates ‘with a balance of minimalism, repetition and the abstract, words isolated and ringing.’

A similar minimalism is also to be found in the content of these poems. In the words of the Del Amitri song, in these poems ‘nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all’. Harriet Neville notes the happenings as being: a bird landing on the door, waiting to be fed; a dog entering the bedroom through an open back door; and Belgian waffles and eggs Florentine shared with old friends. Although nothing significant seems to happen, actually everything happens and we, as is the poet, are changed.'

For more on David Miller, see my interview with him for ArtWay and other reviews of his poetry collections - here, here, and here.

Also mentioned in the review is a series of poems published by Stride Magazine that were inspired by The Prayer, an art-installation that tries to explore the supernatural through artificial intelligence. My poem 'The algorithms of prayer?' was also part of this series. 

Tears in the Fence is an internationalist literary magazine based in the U.K. Publishing a variety of contemporary writers from around the world, it provides critical reviews of recent books, anthologies and pamphlets and essays on a diversity of significant modern and contemporary English and American poets. Each issue features a number of regular columnists adding wide focus and independent thought on the contemporary poetry world. A wide range of book and pamphlet reviews are also published on the magazine’s blog.

My first review for Tears in the Fence was of 'Modern Fog' by Chris Emery. My second review was of 'The Salvation Engine' by Rupert Loydell. My third review was of 'For All That’s Lost' by David Miller

My poetry reviews for Stride include a review of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, a review of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, a review of Fukushima Dreams by Andrea Moorhead, a review of Endangered Sky by Kelly Grovier and Sean Scully, a review of John F. Deane's Selected & New Poems, a review of God's Little Angel by Sue Hubbard and a review of Spencer Reece's 'Acts'.

My poetry-related pieces for IT are: an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, plus reviews of: 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland; 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey, and 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller. I have also published pieces on poetry at Seen and Unseen - a profile of the poet Theresa Lola - and the Journal of Theological Studies - a review of Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination by Malcolm Guite. For more on poetry, read my ArtWay interview with David Miller here and my interview with Rupert Loydell here. See also Rupert Loydell's interview with poet and musician Steve Scott. My own dialogues with Steve can be read here, here, here, here, and here. For thoughts on the links between poetry and prayer see here and here.

My poems to have been published in Amethyst Review are: 'Prayer', 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'. I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. International Times have also published other of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

Several of my short stories have also been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

For more of my poems, see here, and for my poetic meditations, see here.

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David Miller Multi-Media Reading.

Amazement at a rescue action

Here is the reflection that I shared during yesterday's Evensong at St Catherine's Wickford:

'Eleven Addresses to the Lord: I' by John Berryman.

This is the first of ’Eleven Addresses to the Lord’ written by the US poet John Berryman and published in 1970 in Love & Fame. Berryman was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is often considered one of the founders of the Confessional school of poetry. He was the author of The Dream Songs, which are playful, witty, and morbid. In 1970 he published the drastically different Love & Fame which, in its final section ‘Eleven Addresses to the Lord’, reflected his return to the Catholicism of his youth. Despite its negative reception, its colloquial style and forthrightness have influenced many younger poets.

I share this poem because of the difficulties posed for us by the stories of miracles in the New Testament (Acts 12.1-19). In this evening’s reading from Acts, Peter is miraculously rescued from prison by an angel, while James, the brother of John, another of the apostles is killed by King Herod. Why is one apostle saved from death and another allowed to die? We don’t know and we aren’t told. We face the same issue today, when miracles are claimed for some but many others for whom prayers are said do not survive.

At the centre of Berryman’s poem are these lines:

You have come to my rescue again & again
in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.
You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves
and I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning.

He said that his conversion came about because ‘of a rescue action – into the notion of a God who, at certain moments, definitely and personally intervenes in individual lives, one of which is mine.’ But why had God saved him and not his brilliant friends who had destroyed themselves?

Berryman can’t deny the help he has received from God and even feels sure God will assist him again but is unable to go any further than that. He says that all things are possible for God but that some miracles may have been a special case to establish the initiatory faith of the apostles.

This seems a reasonable stance for us to take; we know that we have been helped but we can’t pretend to know how and why God acts as he does. Whatever may come, Berryman says he stands in awe and wonder of God – ‘accept my amazement’ – and asks to:

stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.

May we also do the same. Amen.

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Nick Battle - The Finish Line.

Amethyst Review: Connections and contemplation in poetry and prayer

'Connections and contemplation in poetry and prayer', a brief survey of the connections between poetry and prayer has been published by Amethyst Review today. It looks at the connections between the two and highlights both poems about prayer and poems that are prayers. This piece was originally written as the introduction to a Quiet Day I ran recently on Poetry and Prayer. On the same day, I also wrote a new poem entitled 'Prayer' which was published recently by Amethyst Review.

The references for the article are:

• [1] D. Yezzi, ‘“Power of some sort or other”: on poems and prayers’ in The New Criterion, April 2012 - https://newcriterion.com/article/power-of-some-sort-or-other-on-poems-and-prayers/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [2] D. Rotty, ‘Poetry as Prayer’ in Catholic Exchange, 10 October 2022 - https://catholicexchange.com/poetry-as-prayer/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [3] J. Kranz, ‘Poetry and Wisdom Books of the Bible: The Beginner’s Guide’ in overviewbible.com, 4 March 2020 - https://overviewbible.com/poetry/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [4] G. Heugh, ‘How poetry can help us pray’, tear fund, 19 March 2021 - https://www.tearfund.org/stories/2021/03/how-poetry-can-help-us-pray [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [5] D. Yezzi, ‘“Power of some sort or other”: on poems and prayers’ in The New Criterion, April 2012 - https://newcriterion.com/article/power-of-some-sort-or-other-on-poems-and-prayers/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [6] J. Ramazani, ‘Poetry and Prayer’ in Poetry and Its Others: News, Prayer, Song, and the Dialogue of Genres, University of Chicago Press, 5 November 2013 - https://academic.oup.com/chicago-scholarship-online/book/15853/chapter-abstract/170723284?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false [Abstract accessed 27 April 2026]
• [7] ‘Poetry and Prayer: Continuities and Discontinuities’, An international conference organized jointly by the Institute of English Studies and Heythrop College, University of London, 29–30 June 2012 - https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article-abstract/26/2/242/1028143?redirectedFrom=PDF [Abstract accessed on 27 April 2026]
• [8] E. McGrath Smith, ‘Poetry as Prayer’ in talking writing, January 27, 2014 - https://talkingwriting.com/poetry-prayer [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [9] S. Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, 12 September 2002.
• [10] A. Carroll, ‘Vocabulary of the Heart – What Poetry Taught Me About Prayer’ in Chronic Joy - https://chronic-joy.org/vocabulary-heart-poetry-taught-prayer/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [11] A. Baker, ‘A Conversation with Gregory Orr’, Image, Issue 66 - https://imagejournal.org/article/conversation-gregory-orr/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [12] M. Guite, Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination, Routledge, 28 March 2012
• [13] G. Heugh, ‘How poetry can help us pray’, tear fund, 19 March 2021 - https://www.tearfund.org/stories/2021/03/how-poetry-can-help-us-pray [accessed 27 April 2026]
• [14] G. Heugh, ‘How poetry can help us pray’, tear fund, 19 March 2021 - https://www.tearfund.org/stories/2021/03/how-poetry-can-help-us-pray [accessed 27 April 2026
• [15] ‘Oasis: Poetry’ in explorefaith.org - http://www.explorefaith.org/oasis/poetry/otherwise.html [accessed 27 April 2026]

Amethyst Review is a publication for readers and writers who are interested in creative exploration of spirituality and the sacred. Readers and writers of all religions and none are most welcome. All work published engages in some way with spirituality or the sacred in a spirit of thoughtful and respectful inquiry, rather than proselytizing.

The Editor-in-chief is Sarah Law – poet (mainly), tutor, occasional critic, sometime fiction writer. She has published five poetry collections, the latest of which is 'Thérèse: Poems'. Her novel, Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven is a 2023 Illumination Book Award silver medal winner. She set up Amethyst Review feeling the lack of a UK-based platform for the sharing and readership of new literary writing that engages in some way with spirituality and the sacred.

My poems to have been published in Amethyst Review are: 'Prayer', 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. International Times have also published other of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

Several of my short stories have also been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

For more of my poems, see here, and for my poetic meditations, see here.

My first review of poetry for Tears in the Fence was of 'Modern Fog' by Chris Emery. My second review was of 'The Salvation Engine' by Rupert Loydell and my third was of 'For All That’s Lost' by David Miller. My poetry reviews for Stride include a review of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, a review of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, a review of Fukushima Dreams by Andrea Moorhead, a review of Endangered Sky by Kelly Grovier and Sean Scully, a review of John F. Deane's Selected & New Poems, a review of God's Little Angel by Sue Hubbard and a review of Spencer Reece's 'Acts'.

My poetry-related pieces for IT are: an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, plus reviews of: 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland; 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey, and 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller. I have also published pieces on poetry at Seen and Unseen - a profile of the poet Theresa Lola - and the Journal of Theological Studies - a review of Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination by Malcolm Guite. For more on poetry, read my ArtWay interview with David Miller here and my interview with Rupert Loydell here. See also Rupert Loydell's interview with poet and musician Steve Scott. My own dialogues with Steve can be read here, here, here, here, and here. For thoughts on the links between poetry and prayer see here and here.

My key literature posts (including poetry) are:

• There were giants in those days (1)
• There were giants in those days (2)
• There were Giants in those days (3)
• There were giants in those days (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (1)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (2)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (3)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (5)
• The poetry of connection
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith?
• Jesus is having a moment in literary fiction
• Endo & Scorsese: Approaching Silence
• Contemporary Fiction and Christianity
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith? (2)
• Jack Clemo: The Invading Gospel
• Dealing with faith and with secularism is difficult but necessary now
• The poet’s eloquently passionate struggle at the junction of doubt and devotion
• Christian Arts renaissance: Major or minor?
• T.S. Eliot: Christianity, fragmentation and reconciliation
• Jesus Novels & Films: The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Acts of the Assassins and Jesus Novels
• Czeslaw Milosz, Oscar Milosz and Simone Weil
• Blogs: cryingforavision & Stride magazine
• Tasos Leviaditis: The Blind Man with the Lamp
• Religious concerns in Greek poetry
• Thomas Merton and Latin American poets
• American Catholic poets & writers
• Connections of Sister Corita Kent and Norman Nicholson
• Ernesto Cardenal RIP
• Czeslaw Milosz, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Oskar Milosz, and Aleksander Wat
• Faith, Mystery & Poetry
• Elizabeth Jennings & David Gascoyne: Mystical Experience and the Making of Poems
• Roots of the Catholic Literary Revival

See also 'Art and Faith: Decades of Engagement: Introduction, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

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Gideon Heugh - Love - An Easter Poem.

Edward Lucie-Smith R.I.P.

Edward Lucie-Smith, the Jamaican-born British art critic, poet and author whose output across more than six decades shaped how several generations understood modern and contemporary Art, has died aged 93. 

Artlyst write: 'It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the distinguished art critic, writer and poet Edward Lucie-Smith (1933–2026). For the last fifteen years, Edward served as Artlyst’s Chief Reviewer, bringing unrivalled knowledge, sharp critical insight and an unmistakable literary voice to our publication. His reviews challenged convention, celebrated artistic achievement and never shied away from difficult questions. A towering figure in post-war art criticism, Edward leaves behind an extraordinary body of work that shaped generations of artists, writers and readers. His absence will be felt by everyone at Artlyst and throughout the international art community.' See the Artlyst obituary here.

I first encountered Lucie-Smith through his poems in Penguin Modern Poets 6 (with Jack Clemo and George MacBeth) but met him early on in my time as Priest-in-charge at St Stephen Walbrook. Together, we organised exhibitions by Kim Poor, Joe Machine, Terry Ffyffe, Alexander de Cadenet, and Jamaican Spiritual artists. These also included concerts by Italian pianist Claudio Crismani, Riyad Nicolas and Katya DJ, Niklas Oldemeier and Shir Victoria Levy, poetry from Steven O'Brien, Joe Machine, and Lucie-Smith, and dance from Fernando Montaño and Kirill Burlov. 

During the poetry evening at St Stephen Walbrook organised with The London Magazine, Lucie-Smith read his powerfully intense series of poems about the Srebrenica massacre which took place in Bosnia in 1995. Lucie-Smith and I lectured on Francis Bacon at St Stephen Walbrook and also spoke at the PV for Terry Ffyffe's 'Painting the Light' exhibition. At a conference entitled 'Art Awakening Humanity', organised with Alexander de Cadenet, Lucie-Smith gave his agnostic’s view of art and spirituality. Knowledgable about art and spirituality, his books included 'The face of Jesus', a collection of paintings and images of Jesus throughout the centuries depicting his life, from birth to his crucifixion to his resurrection. 

As Chief Reviewer for Artlyst, he introduced me to Artlyst's Editor, Paul Robinson, and thereby enabled the invitation I received to begin writing for Artlyst. I owe him a debt of gratitude for that introduction and for the exhibitions we were able to organise together in my time at Walbrook.

Lucie-Smith was an enthusiast who, even though he had seen so much work over the course of his career, was still open to surprise as he wrote of Ffyffe's final series of work: "Every now and then even a hardened old lag in the art business - yes folks, I mean me - gets a nice surprise … Terry Ffyffe-asked me to come and look at a new series of paintings … and my reaction was 'Wow!' … These were whirling, dynamic abstract designs - a total break with anything major of his that I had encountered previously.” He was also a loyal supporter of artists like Ffyffe, even when their work was not generally considered as fashionable as that of others among their peers. Lucie-Smith was strong in his enthusiasms, insights and opinions and was happy to hold contrary views to those of other critics - see, for example, his twelve defining Artlyst reviews.  

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Claudio Crismani - Friss-Lassan.