coindidence? methinks not

It's been 102 years in the making, so how fitting that the piece de resistance - the final 22-tonne spire - was raised this morning, a day after Father Binns (who once lived in the Cathedral) was laid to rest. Befitting, yet bittersweet.

As it stands, St. John's is the last Gothic-style Cathedral to be finished in the world and I always wondered if it would be finished in my lifetime. It is a place of overwhelming beauty and despite being a devout agnostic, I still find religious (not necessarily all Christian) places of worship inspiring. St. John's, St. Stephen's, Stuartholme and other Cathedrals I have visited interstate and overseas have been instrumental in bringing peace into my life.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan's Morningside Heights (1042 Asterdam Avenue, if you ever happen to be in the area) trumps St. John's in Brisbane with its Gothic-Revival grandeur. This is one Cathedral that won't be finished in our lifetime, after it's humble beginnings in 1892. And did I mention the square footage? Just the length of the Cathedral is 601 feet long.

After spending (not enough) time there, I was catatonic, and my thoughts once again turned getting thee to a nunnery when I returned home. Aside from the architecture, what fascinated me was The American 'Poets' Corner', created in 1984 to memorialise American writers of the highest repute. It has been modelled from a similar alcove for writers at Westminster Abbey in London. The Corner, located in the Cathedral’s Arts Bay is made up of stone tablets, both on the wall and on the floor, each bearing the writer’s name, the dates of their birth and death, and a memorable quotation from the writer's work, the likes of which include Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein. I remember having my photograph taken and will endeavour to locate and post them. I was 19 and thought to myself (as only a 19 year old can), 'My name will be here one day', but there were two compounding issues that stood in my way - talent (and the lack thereof) and that I was not an American national.

So it goes.

To date, over thirty writers have been inducted and literally set in stone, and it's not just exclusive to famous poet's and novelists. In 1976, the year of my birth, poet Muriel Rukeyser founded The Poetry Wall in the ambulatory of the Cathedral as a place where poems will always be accepted. I recall writing one shortly before we left the Cathedral, sticking it crudely to the wall. Rukeyser explained 'the whole idea is openness, a free giving and accepting of poetry. Poets meet so many rejections in their work. This is the place where poems will always be accepted. They can be signed or unsigned and in all languages.'

Amen.