‘St Walstan’s Way’

 

New England!  Ever eager

To prove your chosenness

By your money wealth

And world success.

Yet your kinsman from Norfolk

On the eastern shore,

Holy Walstan of Bawburgh,

Pleads for your repentance.

 

Yankees!  In the abundance

Of your physical goods

You see God’s blessing.

But St Walstan gave away

The gifts of food and clothes

He received to the poor.

 

The dynamo!  By machines

And technology

You, O Pilgrim sons,

Will undo the wretched Fall.

Your cousin Walstan

Heartily disagrees,

Mowing hay barefoot

With a heavy scythe.

 

The appearance

Of apparitions

You see, East Anglians,

As proof of your purity

In the eyes of God.

But rebels against

The Orthodox Church

Of Christ are not vouchsafed

Such precious gifts.

Whereby we know

That the visitations

Of angels, the visions

And voice of God,

That you were granted

Were no delusion,

Righteous Walstan,

Walker of the Orthodox Way.

 

An eternal earthly

Empire is what you want,

Folk of Essex,

While Walstan at forty-one

Gave up his ghost to God.

 

Now he lives on

Beyond the grave,

Granting healings

Through his prayers

And holy wells.

But you will die,

And with Dives will be far

From the comforts

Of Abraham’s bosom,

Tormented by technics

Of your own devising.

 

Is this your desire, Yankee souls?

 

Seek instead the Way

Of Walstan while it may

Be found, before black night

Hides it forever from your eyes.

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!