Queen Catherine Parr
A lucky escape for the last wife of Henry VIII
I feel the arc of my life slipping
towards righteousness with age —
so this morning I remembered
all those English wives married to
one particular English king & his final
queen Catherine Parr who
managed to navigate — with some skill —
alleged heresy & get to keep her head.
What a shame the world of 1547 prevails
& still fails to learn opinions will
never war if we just allow them to fall
into the heart & disappear
perhaps mastering the skilful art
of diplomacy as Queen Kate did
(aided by the good fortune of the tyrant’s
timely death). When will we stop
tearing one another apart & hear the simple
truth that papacies & reformations
dogmas and unholy schisms are simply
how the mind refuses the call to descend?
Love thy neighbour as thyself escaped the
English court & little has changed since.
Copyright Simon Heathcote
