When You Go
When you go When you go, if you go, and I should want to die, there’s nothing I’d be saved by more than the time you fell asleep in my arms in a trust so gentle I let the darkening room drink up the evening, till rest, or the new rain lightly roused you awake. […]
Taha Muhammed Ali
In October a great Palestininian poet died. Taha Muhammed Ali was self taught and, all his life, earned his living as a shopkeeper in Nazareth. He was witness all of the agonies and upheavals of the time – but but when he thought of his own death dreamt only of sleep and tea. Here’s the […]
A cortège of daughters
A cortege of daughters A quite ordinary funeral: the corpse Unknown to the priest. The twenty-third psalm. The readings by serious businessmen One who nearly tripped on the unaccustomed pew. The kneelers and the sitters like sheep and goats. But by some prior determination a row Of daughters and daughters-in-law rose To act as pall-bearers […]
‘Untimely’ Death
‘Untimely’ Death Death knocked on my door – it was a policeman come looking for the home of a child found unharmed amid the wreckage of a highway crash. I heard him say ‘grandparents’ and my mind saw Grandma long since ready for her death and Granddad who would never cope alone. That one word […]
