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The Kingdom Of James

Catholics are not as impressed by Bible-reading, but I grew up a Protestant, before converting, and am familiar with the King James Bible, along with Shakespeare, what you get when you are stranded on BBC's Desert Island.  Today it has been acted out on Radio 4 (BBC), and has been impressive (if at times, even for a literate Christian poet, tedious).  There is an urge to render the Bible a secular document of immense poetic value, which, secondarily, it has become, and Ecclesiastes, especially, reminds me how much of Roth's Nemesis is (literally) biblical.  Without this great Judaeo-Christian work, as we all know (and are endlessly told), there could be no meaningful English literature, which, at any rate, only becomes mainly or mostly post-King James post-Beckett, and not even then.  Good to have British radio opened up to the Word of God.  At the least, it'll do wonders for a new generation of poets.
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