Church Going

25 August 2023

Happy National Poetry Day from the East Riding of Yorkshire. This is St Mary’s Church in Kirkburn. Its nave and chancel were built about 1130.

St Mary's, Kirkburn

Inside there’s a twelfth century cylindrical Norman font made of limestone and carved with decorative patterns and a tableau of animal and human figures. It’s impossible to imagine how many babies have been carried gently to this spot over the centuries. All I know is that my mother and my uncles were cradled here and baptised in this font when they were infants.

Font, St Mary's, Kirkburn

The church was empty, old, beautiful, and this is Yorkshire, and it’s Poetry Day … there’s really only one poem that cuts it for me today. Move forward, run my hand around the font – ‘Church Going’ by Philip Larkin. Happy Poetry Day!

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1 Comment
    1. Lovely to se that church & to hear you read the poem Sue

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