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The Journey

This man wants you to worship,
Through him, a merciful God. He’s dressed
For the part. You wouldn’t choose this outfit
For an ordinary day’s work.
I too am dressed for the occasion,
Though not, I grant, in ecclesiastical robes.
A picked-out shirt, a known-to-be favourite jacket,
A much-worn tie.
This was the priest who suggested
That on our census forms, under occupation,
We entered “Eucharist”. I thought, fat chance:
Make some worthwhile point.
The census numbers will not contract by one
To account for me. The jobs will be as they are.
Like him, I’m dressed for a journey:
We’re not going far.
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Harold Jones is a New Zealander, educated at Cambridge University, where he was awarded an Exhibition to read English. His poetry has been widely published in UK and NZ literary journals. He has been a prize-winner in national UK and NZ poetry competitions, and, as a lyricist, in the UK Songwriting Contest, the largest such event in the world. A selection of his work in AUP New Poets Four (Auckland University Press, 2011), drew the UK review, “this excellent poet, a kind of Ted Hughes crossed with Bukowski,” with a further selection, Curriculum Vitae (Xlibris, 2014), reviewed in NZ as “downright incredible.” His work has won the acclaim of pre-eminent critics and poets: among them, Al Alvarez, “I like the elegance and control, the drive to say something rather than just to cut a fashionable figure," and Ted Hughes, “I hear a real voice, a real movement of mind cutting through resistances.” In the US his poems appear in Merion West and VoegelinView.

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