The Vanishing Song

By Jay Hulme

In The Vanishing Song, trans Christian poet Jay Hulme goes in search of what is all but lost in contemporary faith, the ‘beautiful and holy and wild’ way of the saints, and the alluring, perplexing mystery of the places they chose for themselves – forests, caves, rocky outcrops in the sea. Revelling in the untamed nature of creation and the holiness that is to be found there, these poems celebrate and summon the spirit of those who did unhinged things for God, in order that we might recover a sense of uncontrollable wonder and the danger of the divine as well as its beauty. The Vanishing Song is a call of the wild to faith that is adventurous and unafraid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich
• Release date: Sep 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9781786225269

Jay Hulme

Jay Hulme is an award winning transgender performance poet, speaker and educator. Alongside his writing and regular performances he teaches in schools, consults and speaks at events and conferences on the importance of diversity in the media, and more specifically transgender inclusion and rights.

Book preview

The Vanishing Song

Jay Hulme

Canterbury_logo_fmt.gif

© Jay Hulme 2023

First published in 2023 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

Editorial office

3rd Floor, Invicta House

108–114 Golden Lane

London EC1Y 0TG, UK

www.canterburypress.co.uk

Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd

(a registered charity)

HAM.jpg

Hymns Ancient & Modern® is a registered trademark of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd

13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,

Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.

The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work

978 1 78622 525 2

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Mary Matthews

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

Contents

Introduction

Waking the Dead

A Saint Dies Beside the Nidd

The Madness of St Robert of Knaresborough

A Saint looks up from his prayers to discover he’s been dead for some time

Beneath Hexham Abbey

Nobody asked the Island if she wanted to be Holy

Insula Sacra

An Almost Pilgrimage

I’m not saying I talk to the dead, but the Saint and I chatted

St Swithun Dreams of Rain

Mother of Saints

Colmán Elo travels to Iona

Somewhere South of Holy Island

Inner Farne — March, 687

‘I am come hither to leave my bones’

Thomas Haukes

The Devil Un(ac)countable

The Diocese has upheld your complaint of abuse

Joseph of Panephysis

Replacing the Flowers on St Valentine’s head

The Martyrs of Compiègne

Mother Julian

Patron Saint of Violets // I Want

Hildegard von Bingen Maps the Universe

‘What rage or madness drives you?’

The Holy Family

A Place of Great Faith

The Temptation of Simeon Theodochos

St Guinefort

The Hermit Studies Astronomy

Fountains Abbey Vs Knaresborough Town — 1218

The Monk in the Bookshop

Gratia

A Congregation of None

With Green Men in the Rafters

Do not Sing, but Reply

Syrinx

Mass at St Beunos

In a Moment of Silence

Psalm 139

We Miraculous Specimens

The Creation of Adam

Monarch Butterflies

Jesus encounters death for the first time

In the Pit Beneath Caiaphas’ House

Easter Eggs

Scientists and Gravediggers

An Assembly Guide for the Resurrection

The Afterlife

Funeral Plans (or: a Threat)

Jigsaw Anatomy

Before the Resurrection: Death

Auto-archaeology

The Afterlife (reprise)

Even the Pious Want Silence

William Turner’s Cataracts

God Rays

Community in Common

A Churchwarden Speaks

St Giles-in-the-Fields

Fountains Abbey

Vultures with copes for wings

God as a Carpenter; hands shot through with nails

A New Commandment

Biographies

Thanks

Acknowledgements

For Kym, who hunted the saints with me

Lord,