As part of the celebrations commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation this year, myself and seven other Barbican Young Poets were commissioned by St. Paul's Cathedral to celebrate Radicals and Reformers that have stepped through her doors.

The celebrations involved the unveiling of eight mosaics portraits made by community groups from across London, celebrating the lives and work of people who pushed for justice through social and ecclesiastical change. Among them included Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Florence Nightingale, Sydney Newman, and Paul Robeson.

I managed to secure William Tyndale, the priest and Reformer who first fully translated the Bible into plain, contemporary (to the 16th century) English. He was eventually martyred for it, but his actions made the Bible intelligible to the laypeople for the first time in centuries and catalysed the rise of English Protestantism. I could go on, but this is what we have Wikipedia for. Do look him up. Furthermore, on display at the Late where I shared my response happened to be one of the world’s few remaining original Tyndale Bibles. It was a real privilege.

Anyway, here is a portion of my response to his image, while the full piece can be read at the link below. Big up fellow commissioned poets:

Jeremiah "SugarJ Poet" Brown
Victoria Adukwei Bulley,
Tice Cin,
Maddie Godfrey,
Remi Graves,
Zahrah Sheikh
Ruth Sutoyé

Check them out. Special thanks to the wonderful Donna McDowell, Head of Schools and Family Learning at St. Paul’s Cathedral, for commissioning us.

Anyway, on to the poem.

from TESTAMENT

When Donna tells us the bibles were unadorned octavos,
pocket-sized, unassuming as notebooks, the room is shocked,
expecting them to be tomes,
as though they were meant to be ornaments
or instruments adorning lecterns and shelves,
as though they were made to be flaunted and thumped
and not smuggled in bundles of cloth,
but read under covers,
undressed in candle light by fingers and eyes

Full Poem