Words and Beyond....

Its been ages since I have actually sat down and read poetry, for I really do not understand much of it. So I have managed to surprise myself as I write this blog, which is a compilation of a few poems from Sheila Hancock's book" The two of us - My life with John Thaw".I happened to read it last month..It describes the lives of these two British Theater and TV stars , separately, together and Sheila's struggle to come to terms with John's death in 2001.

It is a kind of a double biography, wherein Sheila has interspersed the account of their lives with writings from the diary she maintained through John's battle with cancer and his subsequent death. I loved the book for its original form of writing and the beautiful poems the writer relates to,and at times finds solace in, through her journey of life. Some of these poems were sent in the fan mail after John's death and some are by well known poets.
Here, I share a few of them with you all.

Phillip Larkin's “The Mower”, on the death of a hedgehog, he killed accidentally while mowing his lawn :-(Only the last verse appears in the book)

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found

A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed.It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.

Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning, I got up and it did not

The first day after death, a new absence

Is always the same, we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

By Mary Elizabeth Frye :-

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there

I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints on the snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain

I am the gentle autumn rain

When you awaken in the morning hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight

I am the soft stars that shine at night

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there; I did not sleep.

You can shed tears that he is gone

Or you can smile because he has lived

You can close your eyes and pray that he'll come back

Or you can open your eyes and see all that he's left

Your heart can be empty because you can't see him

Or you can be full of the love you shared

You can turn your back on tomorrow & live for yesterday

Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

You can remember him and only that he's gone

Or you can cherish the memory and let it live on

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back

Or you can can do what he'd want

Smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay:-

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt from every mountain-side,

And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year's bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!

There are a hundred places where I fear

To go, -- so with his memory they brim!

And entering with relief some quiet place

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

I say, "There is no memory of him here!"

And so stand stricken, so remembering him!