1

Let's not forget that ugly rumpus stirred
Up by Crowell's lot in England (not to speak
Of Wales or Scotland, Ireland, Germany
Or France) nor all that killing one another
On religious, or maybe economic grounds?

2

Three centuries beyond that most uncivil strife,
A puritanical stepmother bound
  Me to the Methodists despite
  My Church of England's baptism.

3

Small wonder then that I would waste my time
At Hull's new redbrick university
By trying all the town's disparate sects,
From quiet Quakerdom to rites of Rome.

4

An ocean and a world away from all
That needles tribulation, I found
Myself following a late-born singing son
Across our standard mis-west town
To undermine John Milton's adage that
'New presbyter is but old priest writ large.'