Tag Archives: lockdown

The Poems and the results: The Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival

13/03/2021 Stella Wiseman Leave a comment

Thank you to everyone who entered the Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival. We had 56 entries from adults and children alike, with ages ranging from eight to 80+ and lots of strong feelings about the struggles of lockdown, but also the togetherness and the hope that people have found, despite all the difficulties.

The poems are available to download here:

Lockdown Poetry Festival

and a video of some of the poems being read is available below. Also, though it was almost impossible to choose between the poems, a decision was finally made and the Mayor of Farnham announced the winners in the video.

The winning poems are:

Adults

Winner

Two Lockdowns A Lifetime Apart

The Second World War began when I was just four
The Coventry Blitz was like a firestorm from hell
Later that week I burst into tears when I saw
My toy shop Owen Owen was a burnt out shell

Rationing, conscription and lights blackened at night
This was a long lockdown lasting almost six years
Countless houses and buildings laid waste was our plight
Near half a million deaths left many in tears

Seventy-five years later in twenty-twenty
Few people can claim they saw what was now coming
A virus takes hold to disrupt years of plenty
As it spreads round the world the I-phones are humming

This invisible virus now needed a plan
The instinct in shock is to gather together
But to widespread dismay a new lockdown began
Keep two metres apart at all times wherever

With deaths quickly rising and restrictions imposed
Stay at home, avoid friends and even relations
All but food shops were shuttered and schools were all closed
Wedding parties were banned and all celebrations

I worry my age group holds the country in thrall
We are lucky to have lived so long to this age
It is we who must be careful and should now call
For the economy to be let out of its cage

Being twice locked down it is all but in tatters
The outlook for young people is truly blighted
Surely for their sakes alone all that now matters
Is that their futures be quickly reignited

John Littlewood

Runner up:

Love Your Neighbour As Yourself

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
through screen or window, darkly.
Muffled, crackled, frozen. ’Help!’
‘Can you hear me?’ Hardly.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
through greying hair and slowing hours.
Dull repetition, same old heft,
grace of God in breeze or showers.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
but what means as and how fares Self?
We are God’s hands but when My Self,
when love poured out soon threatens Self?

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
when sacrifice is hellish hard.
Exhaustion beckons, ‘Pain! Now quell!’
and chaos reigns in your backyard.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
wash the bodies, dig the graves.
Tender care the greatest wealth,
tears of love for all they gave.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
desist from posting online hate.
Don’t bully, scam or hurt by stealth,
or suicide might be their fate.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself,
when home-penned folk cry out in pain.
When tempers flare, without behest,
‘When will we see our friends again?’

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
when out of work graph rises steep.
Everyone needs better, best,
for damaged mental health wounds, deep.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
vaccines roll out to the people.
Schools return and wedding guests,
bells will ring from tower or steeple.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
pubs reopen, shops restock.
Meet with friends and family,’ Yes!!’,
hugs, kisses, treats, as doors unlock.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
when loved ones’ deaths have maimed you.
Remember humour, chuckling chest,
tearful teas and talk refold you.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
Please keep the distance, wear the mask.
Do take the vaccine, take the test,
washing hands not much to ask.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
make time to think and time to rest.
Properly to think ‘No stress!’
how love of Self confers the best.

Love Yourself as Neighbour, Blessed,
clamouring calls you can resist.
Your self-care struggle now confessed,
put Your needs first in To Do list.

Wendy Edwards

Children:

Winner

A Lockdown Poem

Schools have closed
Working from home
Missing family and friends
Will this ever end?
Doing lots of calls
Kitchens into school
Whether it’s computer or phone
Everything happened at home
Clapping for heroes
Rainbows on the windows
Watching the news
Feeling confused
People staying in
Why is that a thing?
Having lots of bubbles
Missing lots of cuddles
Staying with your household
If it’s hot or cold
Lots of things have stopped
Many bubbles have popped
But we’re staying safe at home
And are never really alone.

Matilda Bowden (9)

Runner-up

Coronavirus

Coronavirus has wrecked all of our lives
Oh how I wish I could punch it
Rage takes over me and I cannot control it|
On the inside I have pain
Now is the time we fight
Anger is the only feeling I can feel
Vans with deliveries come by, wishing us luck
I had covid and I don’t want it to come back
Run, for covid is here
Understand me please I can’t take this pain anymore
Stand with me, we will defeat it together

Elsie Howard (8)

Art, Coronavirus

Last call for the Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival

25/02/2021 Stella Wiseman Leave a comment

Have you written your poem for the Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival? Entries should be in by the end of tomorrow.

Send your poems about being in lockdown – whatever you feel, whatever your experience – to Lesley Crawley either by email or to her at The Rectory, 25 Upper Hale Road, Farnham GU9 0NX.

Adults and children alike are welcome to send in their poems on the theme of lockdown. The Mayor has offered a prize for the best adult and best child one but don’t worry if you don’t think you are the world’s greatest poet – just give it a go!

If you want some ideas, listen to this lockdown poem by Harry Baker:

Or this poem by Jim Carruth

the long bench

For the times ahead
when we will be

as if at either end
of the long bench

where distance kept
is love’s measure

and death dances
the space between

when words alone
are not enough

and queued memories
reach out to touch

let longing be a store
of nut and seed

that grows each day
in strange hibernation

readying for its end –
the sharing of the feast.

Picture by Ksenia Makagonov on Unsplash

Coronavirus, Services

The Church and Lockdown

01/11/2020 Stella Wiseman Leave a comment

On Saturday the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England would go into a four-week lockdown from Thursday, November 5th.

We are still waiting for details of what this means for churches and we will update you as soon as we can. A spokesperson for the Church of England has said: “We will study the detailed regulations and continue to liaise with Government departments to offer clarity to churches.

“This is a time of real uncertainty for everyone and the Church will continue to be central to the life of our communities in bringing light and hope.”

Here in Badshot Lea and Hale we will be continuing with online services which you can find by clicking here. And we will continue to do what we can to help our community through prayer and other support such as shopping and picking up medicines.

Health and Wholeness, Pastoral Care, Psychology

Additional grief in lockdown

11/05/2020 Stella Wiseman Leave a comment

There is an interesting article about the additional problems of dealing with grief in lockdown on the BBC News website, and tonight (Tuesday, May 10), Rio Ferdinand talks about how he and his children have coped with the grief of losing his wife, their mother, from cancer. You can see Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad at 11.45pm on BBC1.

The increased effects of grief at this time is something that Wendy Edwards, Licensed Lay Minister in the parish, has been considering and she shares her thoughts below:

What I think may be happening for some people, maybe quite a few people, who are grieving the death of a loved one, is that extended periods spent in your own home, often with reminders of your loved one all around you and an inability to have the normal tactile comfort of cuddling or kissing your other family members due to lockdown, are increasing your sense of loss and sadness.

This makes perfect sense in psychological terms but is difficult to experience. You may like to know about this if you wonder why you are struggling more with grief, if you are – and you may not be, we are all different.

Grief is felt not just when a loved one dies. It is also felt in all sorts of other circumstances. These are all causes for grieving in older adults just now: –

Loss of mobility or worsening senses of hearing, eyesight, taste etc or worsening health generally – you grieve for your mobile self or your healthy, hearing, seeing self;
Pain- you have lost your pain-free self and you grieve for pain-free days which you did not realise you needed to appreciate as pain -free!
Loss of a job or role in life, homemaker, breadwinner, carer of your loved one all cause grief, if you do not have these roles any more;
Separation from family members for other reasons, maybe due to distance or disputes or arguments – you have lost the happy close connection you once had with them and there is real grief to work through;
Ageing – none of us can stop the passage of time and we can all grieve for our seemingly lost younger selves (I think we contain all the ages we have ever been);
Inability in lockdown to see your friends and family, to hold or kiss them;
Inability to escape the confinement of your home or the confinement of your grief.

The list could go on, but I hope you see my point. If you are getting on with things and keeping busy, as many of you are, that’s great. Your grief may be held at bay for a while, but it will likely surface at unexpected moments.

Grief can be held down but, like a jack-in-the-box whose lid has been held down, it can spring up when you least expect it. It takes energy to hold grief down and when it is released (hopefully in tears but not all of us can cry) there is healing in tears. We may feel anger or frustration, remorse, or guilt in grief too, or any human feeling really.

At these times, if you are suffering, please do not despair. We all have increased grief in the lockdown and those who have lost a loved one will be feeling it worse. It will pass in time. It can take three to five years to heal from the worst of grief over the death of a close family member and sometimes longer. Some losses are more painful for different reasons. It is no cause for shame or concern if your grief is taking longer or feels worse now.

Reach out as much as you feel comfortable to trusted friends or family and your support network. Or indeed reach out to your GP also, if you feel you need to. They are available for consultation regarding emotional, mental, or physical health matters, over the telephone or online. Or contact Alan or Lesley Crawley, join rectors of the parish, on 01252 820537 or revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org or
revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org

With all good wishes, Wendy Edwards LLM

Services, St George's Church, St Mark's Church

Worship for 3rd Sunday of Easter, St George’s Day and St Mark’s Day

26/04/2020 Alan Leave a comment

Hello, today we have a veritable smorgasbord of services for you, a completely different one for each of our churches including different sermons. Perhaps you can enjoy them all through the week.

At St John’s we have an Easter 3 service looking at the story of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, St George’s are celebrating St George’s Day with an All Age service and St Mark’s are celebrating St Mark’s Day.

In the bonus pieces below is video showing a way of reflecting on the Emmaus Road – especially good for younger people, with lots of wondering questions. There is also a piece asking the question “Isn’t the Bible sexist” with a lovely quote from Dorothy Sayers – this relates to Lesley’s St John’s sermon. Also, a play and Allelu, Allelu – a couple of highlights from the St George’s service! St Mark’s discussed what they miss about going to church, you can see the answers here. Also I have added the sermons (6 of them!) at the bottom, including one from Bishop Jo.