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Lent Poetry Podcast revisited: ‘Paternoster’ by Jen Hadfield

by
21 March 2025

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On the podcast this week, Mark Oakley reflects on “Paternoster”  by Jen Hadfield. This episode was first broadcast in 2023 as part of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent series. 

“Paternoster” is published in Jen Hadfield’s collection Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), which won the T.S. Eliot Prize. We are grateful to Bloodaxe Books for giving permission to play a recording of Jen Hadfield reading the poem. bloodaxebooks.com.

The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing.

At the time of recording, Dr Oakley was the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge. He is now the Dean of Southwark.

Artwork by Emily Noyce

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