The Trial And Burning Of Joan Waste Poem by Martin Ward

The Trial and Burning of Joan Waste

Bit by the venom of Reformation,
between Catholic and Protestant disgrace;
where the ordinary became Martyrs,
was a blind girl by the name of Joan Waste.
Without the blessing of earthly sight,
on hearing the ministry of Christ extolled,
poor Joan would see a greater light
that reached out to a pious soul.
She knitted socks and sewed repairs;
mended rope that would not spare the innocent:
but when tested on her simple faith,
she would not stand down or repent.
Joan's hunger for the word of God
would see her visit Derby gaol,
and pay poor beggars who could read
the English Bible which fed her soul.
Joan made the crucial mistake,
amidst the rage of Reformation,
to take her Bible to All Saints Church
and deny a belief in transubstantiation.
The Bishop and his henchman Draycot,
preached hellfire and damnation,
but Joan remained true to her faith,
amidst a tirade of threats and accusations.
The Latin Mass could not inspire
this simple soul, who lived by the English word,
and found the thought of eating human flesh,
however divine, a concept quite absurd.
Battered by the verbal torture,
Joan agreed that she would relent,
but only if the Bishop would answer
for his verdict on the day of judgment.
Within the hallowed House of God,
accusations of heresy were made,
and before the sacrificial alter,
the ultimate price for innocence was paid:
taken to Windmill Hill's ordeal pit,
where hung by her own rope over a fire,
until the flames burnt through it,
sending Joan Waste to God in a living pyre.