Golden String and Other Poems

Lockdown was a wretched time for large numbers of people as the pandemic we know as Covid swept through the land. John Moses was the first to offer an apology for his delight in the space and time that lockdown gave him to write a number of poems which form the basis of this collection. It had long been his hope that the poetry he had discovered for himself might encourage him to write in a very different way from all he had previously done. He had come to see that poetry matters. But why? What is so special about it? Can it really capture the light and the darkness, the laughter and the tears, the height and depths of the human story? This book enables the reader to enter the mind and the experience of the writer. His use of free narrative verse allows him to explore every poem as a conversation with himself, with all who might read the book, and hopefully with God. Taking his cue from William Blake, he uses The Golden String as the centre piece of all he has to say.

John Moses was a London boy who found his vocation as a priest in the Church of England. His experience over more than forty years enabled him to be drawn into the aspirations and heartaches of diverse communities, including his years as Dean of St Paul’s. In retirement John lived in Southwell with his wife, Susan, saw as much of their family as possible, read, wrote, and (when available) sat in the sun. John died on the 14th of July 2024.