CAPEL
1
Prayers fledged fluttering hungry to heaven.
Sins numbered, piled up on threadbare Sundays.
Precious is the clear sound of running water in high summer drought.
Clear-throated the hymns from the strong men drunk in praise.
These chapels set dour and grey against the weather God tests them with.
A pungent slow burning peat, this faith of farm work and school mistress.
2
Beyong the roof of human pride
Where Time slows, then stops, then turns to stone
(Mapping out the green bloom, the grey wheel of lichen breath)
Counting down the centuries ’til Eternity
There floats the height of the day and the meat crow dancing:
Poised upon life and death, the line they know so fickle and thin.
3
Drab with the spew of winter and as bitter as Jeremiah
Polished pine slows each musty sunbeam.
Bent arcing benches, each pew a hierarchy strained forward towards the throne,
Concentric jury leaning in to catch spark,
Dazzled is the ignition of the Word.
Burned up in glory or despair
(The cast-iron certainty, the stinging blister of guilt).
Now silence swallowed again, head bowed, the creak of doom summoned.
An enunciated slow pronouncement from other deserts
To a lost people, outnumbered, outmanouvred, dispossessed.
Gather ye in these bleak barns, ye Chosen lost and living yet.
Humbled together, take tea of Christ and God’s new supper.
A thin brew and be thankful for that: there is nothing else.
But better beyond the doors of Time and a hope of warmth and light
And just rewards for a drudge of work in mud and ice and rain,
And a voice of thunder and delight of which the organ sings,
so strong and sweet.
Notes: Wales is full of Non-Conformist Chapels. Every village had one, two, three, barn-like constructions looming over the lanes. Though they are dour and weatherworn now, the ones that have escaped becoming trendy private houses, can be very impressive, with wonderful wooden interiors. The photographs show the interior of our village chapel that originally dates from the 18th century. Gosen Capel is named after the Land of Goshen in the Nile Delta where the Hebrew tribes were settled so as not to upset the urban Egyptians. There is an irony here with the Old Testament histories and the plight of the rural poor of 18th and 19th century Wales. The egalitarian and popular nature of Methodism addressed the general populations in a way that the established churches had no wish to do, as they were supported and run by the educated and Anglicised gentry.
The ‘height of the day’ and the ‘meat crow’ in the second part are literal translations from the Welsh of the names for skylark and raven.
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simonhlilly 
“…take tea of Christ and God’s new supper. A thin brew and be thankful for that: there is nothing else.” Marvelous poem, Simon. Inspired.
Thank you, Bonnie! Xxx
Atmospheric. Formidable, compact and entirely expansive. Polished pine and slow burning peat. Swallowed silence and time slowing, stopping, turning to stone. Flight of the lark. Amen Simon… or rather, hallelujah.
Many thanks, Chris.
Good photographs. Your poem takes one into much consideration. Perhaps you could better explain your comment in your blog about Methodists. In my area, Catholics are predominant, I have been surrounded by Amish, and I know several Baptists. I know next to nothing about Methodists. CharityGoodwinUS.com
Methodism was a Christian Revival movement of the 18th century, characterised by charismatic preachers travelling the country speaking to large outdoor crowds. One feature of this Revival was the presence of powerfully eloquent female preachers who gathered as large a respectful following as the men. Methodists were known as “Jumpers”, because they would jump for joy, ( and to distinguish them from the Quakers and the Shakers). It began within the orbit of the Church of England, but in Wales it followed Calvinist principals and was largely a working-class, Welsh-speaking phenomenon. (The Church of Wales, basically the Church of England in Wales, was by contrast, English-speaking and supported by the gentry). In the later 19th century it encouraged a general Welsh revival of the older evangelical movements like the Baptists and Anabaptists and other Dissenters. The growth of the more dour Calvinist view damped down some of the early evangelical fervour amongst the Welsh-speaking followers. At our local chapel, Gosen, there is record of an outbreak of unseemly, spontaneous happiness and praise that had spread from village to village in the late 19th c. It was viewed with a barely disguised discomfort by the incumbent officers of the chapel, who hoped the fervour might die out as quickly as it started!
Thank you for the informative response. I had not known that Methodists had been known as “Jumpers” because they “jumped for joy”. I assume that the “jumping for joy” was a type of charismatic experience as part of their revivals or church services. I found your explanations to be interesting.