Hi Arthur, Thanks for your response. I understand how you feel some things
hurt so much it is beyond words. This poem is about my father, I was writing
a collection about him the months before he died. He died early this year.
I had written about fifteen poems about his life as a miner and I found the
few first lines of this poem last night and just worked on them.
I had been to a reading in Manchester the day before by a famous Australian
poet Les Murray who wrote about his father's death and I guess it inspired
me to finish off this poem. I suppose I may be seen as wallowing in sadness
with my poetry at the moment for which I apologise.
Most of my serious poetry is about loss and death and I am afraid I am
inflicting this on you all at the moment. I am afraid email is so easy and I
act so spontaineously that maybe this is a poem that should have been
stacked away with all the others about loss that I have written recently.
Thanks for your comments Arthu I appreciate this. Sally J


>From: Arthur Seeley <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: new sub The going away
>Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 13:18:46 +0100
>
>Hi Sally.
>I can understand the need for catharsis that this poem represents and
>empathise closely with that need. It is a subject that I personally will
>not
>go near. It is a personal thing, deeply so, but I will not overtly write
>about my wife's death nor the loss I felt. The reason for that is that the
>loss and pain were so deeply felt they were beyond words, or rather my
>ability to reflect in words upon that time and anything I wrote would not
>be
>enough and if I tried to make it enough it would degenerate into less than
>it should be. As I say this is my personal response to my loss and not to
>your poem. I wonder if it can ever be well done? At the same time I
>recognise the changes in me that have occurred since her death and
>attributable to that loss and I can see how they inform the way I see and
>understand things and how that ultimately informs the way I write my
>poetry,
>the words I choose, the images I employ, the subjects I address.
>Regards Arthur.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Sally James" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 10:11 PM
>Subject: new sub The going away
>
>
> > The going away
> >
> >
> > Wrinkles tell the story
> > folds of skin, fall in waves
> > hang like a noose
> > slack, around his neck
> >
> > Veins, no longer throb
> > pencilled blue lines in
> > the damp warmth
> > of his lingering hand
> >
> > He held on, till the last tick
> > till early morning clouds, paled
> > his last goodbye, and love for me
> > was the stroke of a finger in my palm
> >
> > Death took him, while I was away
> > asleep in a day, when the night
> > before, had been far too long
> > He needed his solitude to leave
> >
> > How men hurt, with their going away
> > and never coming back
> > last whimpers, when I am not there
> > to hold, and just be
> >
> > A life alone now, but with no regrets
> > my last sad song, a silent tear
> > for the one who went away
> > did not die, yet is not here.
> >
> >
> >
> > Sally James
> >
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