Light Pillar (Holyrood Kirk, Stirling) Poem by Sally Evans

Swirled colour
no prentice pillar
in cool interior

plain smooth stone
the artist sun
and new stained glass

congregation absent
cushioned chairs
mind their history

oaken furniture
Knox's pulpit
ecclesiastical

decoration
poverty riches
dearth of images

among these colours
someone prepares
flowers on a table

we walk round
the familiar
unfamiliar

(Dunfermline Abbey)
(Durham Cathedral)
Stirling parish church

all their trammels
of power and art
stone more than words

changeable windows,
glass and sunlight,
slabs and weather

illuminated
in an instant
around a curve.