Alzheimer’s - by
Chairs move by themselves, and books.
/ Grandchildren visit, stand
/ new and nameless, their faces’ puzzles
/ missing pieces. She’s like a fish
/
/ in deep ocean,…
Tools of the Trade
X-Ray - by
Some prowl sea-beds, some hurtle to a star
/ and, mother, some obsessed turn over every stone
/ or open graves…
The Unprofessionals - by
When the worst thing happens,
/ That uproots the future,
/ That you must live for every hour of your future,
/
/ They come,
/ Unorganised, inarticulate, unprofessional;
/
/ They…
Now Where? - by
It wakes when I wake, walks
/ when I walk, turns back when I
/ turn back, beating me to the door.
/
/ It spoils my…
Daughter - by
There is one grief worse than any other.
/ When your small feverish throat clogged, and quit
/ I knelt beside the chair on…
Precious 10 Minutes - by
The GP stands at the door of his room,
/ shakes my hand, asks me how I am.
/ I always smile and say…
Poem for a Hospital Wall - by
Love has been loitering
/ down this corridor
/ has been seen
/ chatting up out-patients
/ spinning the wheels of wheelchairs
/ fluttering the pulse of the night nurse
/ appearing,…
Catching Up on Sleep - by
i go to bed early
/ to catch up on my sleep
/ but my sleep
/ is a slippery customer
/ it bobs and…
The Peace of Wild Things - by
When despair for the world grows in me
/ and I wake in the night at the least sound
/ in fear of what…
Lines for a Bookmark - by
You who read…
/ May you seek
/ As you look;
/ May you keep
/ What you need;
/ May you care
/ What you choose;
/ And know here
/ In this book
/ Something strange,
/ Something…
Psalm Eighty-Eight Blues - by
Lord, when I’m speechless
/ when something – not just sorrow
/ but under that – a dull, numb, nameless dreich
/ about the heart I…
Gift - by
A day so happy.
/ Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
/ Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
/ There was no thing on…