A published poet has visited the ‘breathtakingly beautiful church and churchyard of St Just in Roseland’ to write a poem for it.

Malcolm Guite writes Poet’s Corner for the Church Times and in his latest contribution to the publication, on June 20, he tells how he visited the area partly to create a poem for the new interpretative centre.

The PCC of St Just and St Mawes members are now commissioning a local artist to create an art piece featuring the poem. It’s hoped to be completed by autumn and displayed in the centre.

The centre, which officially opened in March, cost more than £1m to create and received funding from UK Shared Prosperity Fund through the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme, private donations, and assistance from Truro Diocesan Board of Finance.

In his Church Times piece, Malcolm Guite described the area as a place that ‘draws so many visitors and so many gasps of wonder’

He ended his piece in Church Times by introducing two verses from his poem:

I sit and breathe the scented air
And watch the last light fade
And sense that all the garden here
With heaven is overlaid.

Just as the tide steals up the strand
So sure and quietly
I feel each passing moment here
Bathed in eternity.

A spokesperson for the PCC of St Just and St Mawes said: “’The PCC of St Just and St Mawes are delighted with the new poem.

“Malcolm Guite is a renowned and much-admired poet, so we are thrilled he has written this new and very moving ‘lyric poem’.

“We are commissioning an artwork through a local artist to feature the poem which we hope will be installed in the autumn.”

The full poem will be published in Malcolm Guite’s next book. It is available on a bookmark sold at St Just in Roseland church’ book stall and will also feature in a new updated guidebook available from July.

Malcolm Guite is a poet, writer, songwriter and priest. Read the article, if subscribed to Church Times, here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/20-june/comment/columnists/malcolm-guite-poet-s-corner