![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Tony-H.jpg\" "\\"Tony")
<\/a>Tony Hillier, Swindon’s Community Poet Emeritus<\/p><\/div>\n
The De Vere concert was particularly memorable this year as the choir found itself being celebrated in poetry. Tony Hillier, Swindon’s Community Poet Emeritus, was in the audience and wrote this celebration of the event.<\/p>\n
Hotel Angels<\/strong><\/p>\n We’re all here@the De Vere We welcomed large glass gratis of warmed mulled wine We did wonder what yonder peasant wanted We came, All we Faithful, to sit at large, round, white-surplassed tables. Once again this year, Christ Church Choir has been out and about over the Christmas season. Despite a busy programme of services and concerts in the church itself, members of the choir found time to visit the Great Western Hospital where they\u00a0toured wards throughout the hospital, singing carols and to the De Vere hotel where they entertained Christmas visitors with a short programme of carols. Both events have become annual fixtures over the years and help us to be more visible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nto hear Swindon Christ Church singers
\n(this time minus the bell ringers) hitting notes high
\nto hear them Ding Dong Merrily the Sky<\/p>\n
\nplenty of surplus choir gowns made a picture fine
\nuntil we were Away, not with the fairies, but the Manager
\nWe Harked to Heralds of bespectacled men in backrow
\nharked to red-lipped women in front row
\neach with red halo around their graceful, voiceful necks<\/p>\n
\nbut all was Silent on that Xmas Eve De Vere Night
\nthough, if we listened carefully, we could just hear the cattle
\nlowing in the Lower Shaw Farm barn<\/p>\n
\nGathering round in Once-in-Royal-Wootton-Bassett’
\nwe, wealth or rank possessing, had the chance to remember
\nour fellow citizens who may be little, weak and helpless
\nand having heard the Christ Church Singers beautifully chime
\nwith this De Vere prime, we were ignited to have
\na Simply Wonderful Christmas Time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"