Forgiveness

While I'm on the topic of Radio 3, I thought I'd mention this week's series of programmes about Forgiveness. On Friday it will be the turn of Catholic poet Michael Symmons Roberts.

And if you need more reasons to listen to Radio 3 (or equivalent Classical Music stations in other countries), just listen out for the number of references to the Mass, the Stabat Mater, the  Salve Regina ... in short, to core elements of the Faith that are simply absent from most people's lives. It's not the only reason to listen to Radio 3, of course, but Catholicism does still have a formidable presence in Classical Music. 

Epiphany

I've been rather busy with other things recently and so haven't been blogging but it's now time to resume, albeit briefly.

Epiphany often gets missed by schools in the post-Christmas haze so what about a poem or a graphic novel which links the Chinese classic, Journey to the West, with the story of the Magi?

Epiphany

The poetry of Michael Symmons Roberts is well worth looking at. In particular, at this time of year, his Epiphany poem, 'The Gifts', from the Whitbread Prize-winning Corpus works really well in the classroom because children are naturally intrigued by the question of what Mary and Joseph did with the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

You can hear the poet reading from Corpus here and can read an interesting profile here. To get the poem itself you'll need a copy of the book.