I missed this one too back on 6 July. It was a difficult one to write, being about two martyrs of the British Counter Reformation – two men about whom good can be said but who, in the end, sadly missed the point.
Only This (For John Fisher and Thomas More)
When all is revealed,
Then maybe this will
Be quite different to how
You and I see it.
When all is revealed,
All our good deeds may be
Revealed to be hollow
And eaten inside;
And the flames we endured
And the virtues that sent us
To the stake may be found,
In the end, insufficient.
When all is revealed,
Let it be only this –
No virtue, devotion,
Faithfulness to
The crown or the seal
Of the Vatican’s rule –
That speaks for our case
And gives our defence;
Let it be only this:
That Christ stood in our stead;
Only Christ, only faith.
Only this will prove true.
The Consolations of Writing 