Mr. Farrell's brief introduction of the winners commented upon the aims of the ESU:

"One of the excellent features used in cable's "Showtime" epic "The Tudors" is to present the intense Renaissance-Reformation as one part of a world in political and religious chaos. As the camera delineates the young monarch Henry VIII and his Spanish-born Queen Katherine, each is only the center surrounded by all that created them, e.g. music, painting, printing, the religious beliefs, and how they were merely living their lives as products of Western civilization beyond their control.

The latest, sometimes acrimonious, discussions about teaching and learning in our own time are centered on "learning the facts" to pass the test, or pausing to absorb the subject through a kaleidoscope of the multiple pieces that produced the person or event under observation. For example, could George W. Bush be what he is without Karl Rove?

We, of the English-Speaking Union, are directed to preserve and expand our English language and culture, and that means attempting to see all the facets of the cherished heritage. Thus, Henry and Katherine represent Renaissance music and poetry, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Hans Holbein, etc.

Our teachers with us to-day reflect the latest chapter for presenting subject matter as a long story of those things that "humanize", humanities as food for the well-lived life. Sue Vance will tell us how her sojourn in Edinburgh has affected her perspective on teaching, and she will be followed by Carly Gates, who attended Oxford."

 

Postcard from Oxford

 

Some days their fiery god hides its face

and the color drains from the sky,

while all around us liquid falls from nowhere;

our bodies darkening in veils of dots.

 

On the streets, some stop to pull

large brightly-colored buds from bags,

holding the stems to force them into bloom.

 

They hold these blossoms above their heads

as an offering, huddling beneath,

fingers winding round the stems in worship,

their shady siblings drawn up into their heels.

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Spire

I

Rising above tired buildings

huddling shoulder to shoulder,

a spire parts the air.

II

Nodding from the meadow

I watch dreaming spires meet.

III

Whispered prayers climb

the staircase, knots in rope

we clasp hand over hand.

V

There is too much distance

between England and Turkey.

No one notices the spires' conical kinship.

VI

Gates lead to lavender

and polished wood, but the spire's

serrated spear pierces the sky.

VII

Spires do not glimmer with tears of sinners,

they glower with patrons' sterling

VIII

Down the spire's slope,

gargoyles scream

for the pious.

IX

Empires rise and fall,

The spires stand

X

The architect reaches

up toward the sky, stretches

the spire's skeleton to a thin metal pole.

XI

The spire blocks a sliver of sun,

casts long shadows across my face.

XII

Ancient obelisks stand and stare

as the sacred falls like veils.

XIII

At night the chapel's spire

glows with hearth light -

calling us home.