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Notre Dame de Grange en Etain
“…a small red flame – a beaten-copper lamp of deplorable design…”
-Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
All greatness is complex and flawed, all truth
Can well be twisted like a dream deferred
Or like a sweat-stained bandaging of shame
In desolation grasped in desperate prayer
All smallness is complex and flawed, all men
Can well be twisted like justice denied
Or like a blood-stained pallium of death
In desolation grasped in desperate prayer
But in shabby buildings and in shabby men
A small red flame still shines among debris
("Notre Dame de Grange en Etain" alludes to contemporary church architecture having the effect of a big tin barn hardware store or lumber supply)
