‘Seated Figures’ sculpture (2003) by Jonathan Clarke, bought by Alison and Graham Kings in 2003 during the exhibition of his works at the Crypt Gallery, Islington, curated by Miriam Kings. Photo: Graham Kings, 28 April 2026.

 

On oaken bookshelves,

          in our dining room,

Sit three figures:

Sometimes on a level or,

          when they feel like it,

          secretly during the night,

On separate shelves.

 

Originally, fragile in polystyrene,

Now, solid in aluminium:

Elusive and allusive

In meaning, in the morning.

 

Friends of mine,

          across the centuries

          and around the world,

Drift into mind,

Ponder, associate and converse.

 

Stout, middling, svelte,

sad, anxious, composed;

Slouching forward,

upright, straightened,

settled, relaxed;

Looking, facing, glancing;

Legs together, parallel, meeting.

 

Jews in Babylon,

          surviving the heat

          of the fiery furnace,

Unlike the lost wax method

          of the sculpture:

Shadrack, Mishek, Abednego.

 

Star-led Magi from

          Persia, India, Arabia:

Melchior, Casper, Balthasar.  

 

Galilean fisherman,

          transformed into preachers:

Peter, James, John.

 

Mothers bearing, nurturing,

          Christ, Emperor, Bishop:

Mary, Helena, Monica.

 

Theologians of the Spirit,

          African, Italian, Welsh:

Augustine, Anselm, Rowan.

 

Writers of Late Antiquity,

          philosopher, librarian, historian:

Boethius, Cassiodorus, Bede.

 

Nuns and Abbey Founders,

          Ely, Wimborne, Whitby:

Etheldreda, Cuthberga, Hilda.

 

Medieval theologians, indebted to Aristotle,

          Jewish, Islamic, Christian:

Maimonides, Averroes, Aquinas.

 

Medieval philosophers,

          musician, mystic, lover:

Hildegard, Julian, Heloise.

 

Anglican divines,

          liturgist, theologian, poet:

Cranmer, Hooker, Herbert.

 

English and British Queens,

          sixteenth, nineteenth, twentieth centuries:

Elizabeth, Victoria, Elizabeth.

 

Sisters of Haworth,

          novelists of misty moors:

Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

 

Healers, carers, campaigners,

          against abuse, poverty, racism:

Ramabai, Teresa, Rosa.

 

Prophets of justice,

          Asia, America, Africa:

Gandhi, King, Mandela.

 

African theologians,

          Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon:

Mbiti, Bediako, Ela.

 

Hidden, now visible, women,

          scientist, writer, theologian:

Rosalind, Eileen, Charlotte.

 

Oxford scholars,

          Christian myth-makers:

Tolkien, Lewis, Williams.

 

West Ham footballers,

          World Cup winners:

Moore, Peters, Hurst.

 

Kings sisters, growing up in

          Kabare, Cambridge, London,

          doctor, artist, teacher:

Rosalind, Miriam, Katie-Wambui.

 

Three figures figure it out,

          amongst the books:

Questioning, observing, resolving.

 

Even, perhaps, we may whisper,

          ‘not confounding the Persons,

          nor dividing the Substance’:

The mysterious visitors

          to Sarah and Abraham?   

 

 

(c) Graham Kings, 28 April 2026, at home in Cambridge.

Notes:

For my other poems in this series on Jonathan Clarke’s sculptures, see here.

For Shadrack, Mishek, and Abednego, see Daniel 3:19-30.

For Melchior, Casper, and Balthasar, see Matthew 2:1-12 (though the traditional names and countries are not mentioned) and my poems here.

For the call and transformation of Peter, James and John, see Luke 5:1-11.

Links to: Mary (mother of Jesus), Helena (mother of Constantine I) and Monica (mother of Augustine of Hippo).

For my exploration of the links between Augustine, Anselm and Rowan Williams, see here.

For my article on Cassiodorus, which mentions Boethius and Bede, see here.

Links to: Etheldreda (Æthelthryth), Cuthberga, Hilda.

Links to: Maimonides, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and Thomas Aquinas.

Links to: Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Heloise of Argenteuil.

Links to: Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker, George Herbert.

Links to: Elizabeth I, Victoria, Elizabeth II. For my poem, ‘Elizabeth the Gracious’ and to listen to my anthem, see here.

Links to: the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

Links to: Pandita Ramabai, Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks.

Links to: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela. For my poem, ‘Beyond Imagining: Mandela’, see here.

Links to: John S. Mbiti, Kwame Bediako, Jean-Marc Ela.

Links to: Rosalind Franklin, who helped discover DNA; Eileen Blair (nee O'Shaughnessy), the wife of Eric Blair (George Orwell); Charlotte von Kirschbaum the theological secretary of Karl Barth.

Links to: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams.

Links to: Bobby Moore, Martin Peters, and Geoff Hurst.

Our three daughters are: Rosalind Valentine, Miriam Njogu, and Katie Wambui Kings. Miriam illustrated the eight chapters of my Signs and Seasons: A guide for your Christian journey (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2008), with her drawings of Jonathan Clarke’s ‘Seated Figures’ sculpture, from different perspectives.

In The Book of Common Prayer (in the service, ‘At Morning Prayer’) the ‘commonly called Athanasian Creed’ includes the phrase, ‘not confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance’, concerning the Holy Trinity.

For my poem ‘Sarah’, which expounds Genesis Chapter 18 and the three mysterious visitors, see here.