A Memory of Death - by
Nineteen fifty six was a momentous year,
/ The year of Suez…
fathers
The Sweet Silver Song - by
Rita, Keith and I are in the British Legion
/ to choose a menu for the wake.
/
/ We’re at the end of the…
A Tray of Frozen Songbirds - by
For our last meal together / my father takes out of the freezer / a tray of frozen songbirds.
From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - by
My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though their whorls held codes
/ of thirty years obstetric…
A Quiet Life - by
in memory of my grandfather
/ (after Schubert’s piano sonata in C minor D958)
/
/
/ Hammer-blows ring on a hull in dry-dock
/ then dazzling sparks…
To Martin - by
Times
/ In the quiet and dusk of
/ Night, I have wakened
/ Inside a dream of neutral languor,
/ Confessing (with a smile) that my years
/ Point…
At My Father’s Funeral - by
Didn’t we think, for a moment, / of crushing his feet / so he couldn’t return to the house /…
A Song for My Father - by
Against the yam-vine quiet of the garden / a nightingale stirred with my father: the lift / and fall of…
Wednesday afternoon - by
my father is “having fun”
/ cleaning the floor
/ he uses the plugged in sink as a bucket
/ wears rags on his feet
/ and shimmies…
In the Garden - by
i.m. my father
/
/ While I was shawling the strawberries
/ with fine green netting, you told me
/ about the cow that swam to the…
In the Garden - by
i.m. my father
/
/ While I was shawling the strawberries
/ with fine green netting, you told me
/ about the cow that swam to the…
To Alexander Graham - by
Lying asleep walking
/ Last night I met my father
/ Who seemed pleased to see me.
/ He wanted to speak. I saw
/ His mouth…