World Poetry Day

21st March 2023

The Clewer Initiative

On World Poetry Day, we remember the powerful County Lines Psalm that the Bishop of Tonbridge, Simon Burton-Jones, wrote:

The gang leader is my shepherd, I shall not ask.

He makes me lie down in unheated flats;

He leads me beside needle-strewn stairwells;

He enslaves my soul.

He leads me down windswept streets For his own profit.

As I walk down the darkest alley, I feel evil;

For he is with me;

My phone and my stash, they cling to me.

He prepares every deal for me in the presence of my enemies;

My head it drips with sweat; My water bottle is empty.

Surely ruthlessness and cruelty shall stalk me

All the days of my life,

And I shall live in an unfurnished home

My whole short life.

Jennifer Hyde reads the County Lines Psalm

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