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  • Dignity
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Dignity

G. F. Dutton

These young birches
shriek green laughter up the hill
billow on billow. They
stop as he enters. He
carries his promised absence
carefully and yes
he does seem slow
but the end of life
is dignity what though
birches toss their impatience and
the spring sun’s at his back like a knife.

This wood’s enough
to practise silence in
and let him go.


G. F. Dutton

from The Bare Abundance: Selected poems 1975-2001 (Bloodaxe Books, 2002), reproduced by permission of the publisher

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G. F. Dutton1924 - 2010

G. F. Dutton was an English-born scientist who lived, wrote and gardened in Scotland for most of his life.
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