Oh, I did, I did!
SAINT CUTHBERT'S GOSPEL
Sealed in the kist with the stern sanctity
of the Saint's corpse, corruption was not
permitted me. For centuries
I lay listening to his prayers, intoning
under my breath the words of the Evangelist
safe between my covers.
I am a very little smaller
than a man's hand, raised in blessing.
Your book-restorers butcher like vikings,
shear spines away, separate pages out
like limbs left scattered after raids;
but they need not touch me.
My red goatskin is still stretched
with scarcely a blemish over birch boards,
and though my blue and yellow tooling has darkened
almost to black, its pattern is still clear.
No glue has ever stiffened my spine.
Now, in this glass case, I invoke afresh
the incense of holiness. I breathe his air
over the great Gospels Eadfrith Abbot of Lindisfarne
scribed in his honour. God and the Saint
have preserved me, even as he lay incorruptible.
My Saint refused to return to dust
and so do I. Now and for ever
In the beginning was the Word.
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Vincent" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: get well wishes - it isn't me!
>> It's in my notebook directly after some stuff about the St Cuthbert
>> Gospel
>> of St John, that was found in Cuthbert's coffin, still in its original
>> binding and the earliest surviving European example of a cover still
>> atached
>> to its original book. Awesome thing, 3.5 inches by about 5, red goatskin
>> covers -- trip was worth it for that alone, though I'd gone down to see
>> an
>> exhibition of maps.
>
> Such a lovely item. If it were me I suspect you were half-way tempted to
> "squirrel it" away!
>
> Stephen V
>
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