MY QUAKER ATHEIST FRIEND
WHO HAS COME TO THIS MEETINGHOUSE SINCE 1913,
SMOKES & LOOKS OUT OVER THE RAWTHEY
TO HOLME FELL

What do you do
anything for?

you do it
for what the mediaevals would call
something like
the Glory of God

doing it for money,
that doesn’t do it;

doing it for vanity,
that doesn’t do it;

doing it to justify a disorderly life,
that doesn’t do it;

look at Briggflatts here…

it represents the best
that the people were able to do

they didn’t do it for gain;
in fact, they must have
taken a loss

whether it is a stone next to a stone
or a word next to a word,
it is the glory—
the simple craft of it

and money and sex aren’t worth
bugger-all, not
bugger-all

solid, common, vulgar words,

the ones you can touch,
the ones that yield

and a respect for the music…

what else can you tell ’em?