News
Rosemary Combridge writes:
Fellow-worshippers from St Matthew's joined other friends of John Heath-Stubbs on October 27th for the unveiling of a green plaque on the house in Artesian Road where he last lived. The proceedings were opened by the Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council, after which fellow-poets read their own choice of John's poems, and then the Deputy Lord Mayor of Westminster and John's friend, Councillor Guthrie McKie, together unveiled the plaque, which had been commissioned by friends of John Heath-Stubbs and authorised by Westminster City Council.
Poet, critic, teacher, and traveller, John Heath-Stubbs received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1973, the OBE, the Howard Sergeant Award, the Cholmondeley Award, and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1989, and the Cross of St Augustine in 1999. While a member of St Matthew's Church and its Parochial Church Council in the 1990's, John more than once composed a poem for some special occasion in the life of the church, including one for the restored organ, which he dedicated 'to Gary Eyre, organist and Director of Music at St Matthew's.'
The poem was printed in the programme for the inaugural recital on the restored organ given by Jennifer Bate on 17 June 2000.
At The Instalment of a New Church Organ
Like a great city, with its rising tiers of pipes,
Its range of stops, its range of keys,
The organ stands, inhabited
By many voices, of triumph and of supplication:
One can believe the legend, how a Roman girl,
Descendant of the blind man's clan,
Devised this politas,
Secretly through the midnight hours. She drew an angel down,
On furlow from the nine-fold choirs. These two together
Marshalled the unseen couriers of the sky, the whirlwind voices -
And then soared upwards to that region where
Total freedom and immutable law are one.
John Heath-Stubbs
