On the Day of Patrick Cooper’s Death

priest, headmaster

Christ was a leader: first a dozen men
took heart. And quickly then new riches showed
about the Earth. That time is here again
in 1980 and in Worple Road.

You were a leader, Father Cooper: you
gave Wimbledon Christ’s stance the day your fate
struck you from notice. Whose is that figure who
strides up Edge Hill and through the College Gate?

One of His bearing. Once it can be said,
once quickly. But there are a dozen men
from out the parish and the school you led
to show the town new riches, once again.