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Uploaded November 2015 (3 poems) Click for Readings
Coming of Age
I wrote this for my oldest granddaughter's twenty-first birthday. It advises her to 'drink life to the lees'.*
As your birthday dawned that day
Though the sky was dark and drear, With friends you were surrounded And the room was full of cheer. Other days you will remember But few as well as this, Birthdays, unlike your twenty-first, Will pass and scarce be missed. And many days of gladness May your future hold in store, Yet drink life fully to the lees And you will love it more. For darkness can draw deeper And when feeling sorely pressed Look to the light within you, And give thanks for you are blest. |
* We can often learn more about ourselves from life's dark times than from its bright.
My Mother's Death
My mother died when I was seventeen. She had been in poor health for a long time.*
In her quiet way I suspect she has influenced me even more than I consciously know.
In her quiet way I suspect she has influenced me even more than I consciously know.
It was the unexpectedness of the enquiry
about her health that broke my resolve as my mother lay within hours of her death, else I could without tears have told those friends I had been sent to inform. The question came as I entered the vestibule of the church and I went back outside and wept, while a girl who was passing said disparagingly to her two friends "what's the matter with him"? The unexpected happened again as we sang, for I was enfolded as though by a presence without form and by a comfort from deep within - and there were no more tears as I endured the pain of parting from my mother. During that night I heard my father pass my bedroom and go downstairs sobbing softly and when I was informed in the morning all I said was "I know", before leaving to sit a pre-university examination.** |
* See my poem 'Forewarned'
** Footnote: When I arrived my schoolfriends already knew; and I later learned that the invigilator had been told to look out for me. |
Never Mislaid
Corpses were either kept in a coffin at home or more often transferred to the Funeral Parlour
prior to burial. Someone took the opportunity there to acquire a bow-tie.
prior to burial. Someone took the opportunity there to acquire a bow-tie.
No shoes on his feet nor hat on his head
Nor coat on his back adorned him when dead But a black dicky-bow that his shroud had displayed Had someone's approval and was stolen instead. |