Sunday School Anniversary

2017 sees the 150th anniversary of the Methodist chapel in Stonebroom. This poem is the most auto-biographical one I've written. There is a sound recording of me performing in the 1975 Sunday School Anniversary that may appear on YouTube at some point!


Sunday School Anniversary

The old chapel is overflowing,
Ladies in hats and gents a suit
Low murmurs of conversation
Quickly become mute

As the preacher starts proceedings
Introducing the first song
The people of the chapel
Entertain the throng

Up on the tiered platform
The kids are ready too
Four times they have the service
A sense of deja vu

There, on that platform, sits a boy
Who's learned his moral verse
He found learning it so easy
But reciting so much worse

In front of such a massive crowd
It seemed like thousands there
In reality much fewer but
a very real nightmare

On one shoulder the good angel
Says "You know this inside out"
On the other lurks a darker voice
sowing seeds of doubt

"You'll forget it" said the serpent
as it slithered in his ear
"You'll make yourself look stupid"
His stomach knots with fear

His throat goes dry, he doesn't know
Just when the call will come
They change it every single time
His lips have just gone numb

Then suddenly the time arrives
He stumbles to his feet
Two hundred faces watching
Are they hearing his heart beat?

Then the words come flooding out
The confidence is there
The doubting voice just fades away
With a whimper of despair

And then it ends, relief at last
Shaking as he sits
He doesn't have to worry
He's won the war of wits

Between his brain which knows the words
And his soul which just prefers
that he didn't have to do this
and could just crawl down the stairs

But afterwards everybody says
just how well he spoke
"What a lovely poem"
said the genteel chapel folk

He knows that means a longer verse
is on its way next year
He curses his fine memory
but later it is clear

When exams come round that recall
Is a blessing for the boy
Maths, History, Science, English
Are all a learning joy

Even if occasionally
the man who has to stand
before a crowd of strangers
his subject to command

Has the serpent in his ear
Trying to sneak in
He knows that he can do it
He knows that he will win

For his fading memory
Of that Anniversary day
Tells him he can do it
"Be thankful, let us pray"

(c) Tim Fellows 2017