The poems

Atheist Lighting a Candle in Albi Cathedral

for Tyler

It seems to matter
I use a Zippo,
not the taper's monkish flame.

It seems to matter I choose the white
over red before asking the difference,

that I love the fresco's talented horse
though couldn't name his rider –

but what's not authentic at the Virgin's feet?
She knows I am not a bad person, just troubled.
She knows the wick is burning.

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Source

From Ten Hallam Poets edited by Steven Earnshaw, E.A. Markham, Sean O'Brien (Sheffield: Mews Press, 2005). Reprinted by permission of the author.

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Author's note

In one sense, the poem was written directly from experience: I found myself in Albi Cathedral, in southern France, lighting one of the many candles arranged around the feet of the carved religious figures, and wondering why I felt myself compelled to do so. Ostensibly it was a gesture of commemoration for a friend of mine, to whom the poem is dedicated. I was thinking about him as I admired the inside of the building, because I imagined that he would have appreciated the architecture and the human effort of such a space, even given his profound problems with religion. Of course, only part of this is evident from the poem. My friend was omitted in all but name, and the argument personalised. At the time I wrote it, I felt that it was a sort of secular humanist crie de coeur. Now I wonder if the
final lines are not disingenuous. How can you invoke the approval of a Virgin you do not believe in? How can you be so sure you are good?

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Editor's comment

Emotionally layered, using very simple language – my favourite thing. This acknowledging flickering godlessness in the face and house of God is immediately recognisable. Absolutely spot-on.

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Biography

Frances Leviston was born in Edinburgh in 1982, and moved to Sheffield in 1991. She read English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has an MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam University. 'An Atheist Lighting a Candle in Albi Cathedral' can also be found in a pamphlet of her work, Lighter, published in 2004 by Mews Press, and her poems have also appeared in New Writing 14, and the TLS and Ten Hallam Poets. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. Her first collection will be published by Picador.

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Related links

› SPL holdings

› Mews Press