I saw an article titled Funerals DIY -a striking title but referring to
burying family members -all these experts take over and make messes (that
sounds a good sweeping statement -but we have a pretty sad system over here
-all we now need is some one to actually die instead of us to make things
easier
Ha another Patrick rant
Family get the spade out like in the old wild west days?? Uncle make a nice
stone -mother bake a cake -aunty play some music main character' favourite
even one of his terrible poems
No Robin don't know Limbo Line Train did google got 'Limbo' plaster leg
protectors Not that!!?
P

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of David Bircumshaw
Sent: 30 June 2008 11:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Braincap in Elysium

Andrew, the best one I've ever been to was of this guy called Jimmy
Crighton, a dear friend. Jimmy was a a doctor, and an out-and-out
humanist and socialist. He planned his own service, he had people
doing readings (notice the verb usage there) it was like he was still
consciously with us. People came out of it smiling and hugging each
other. Good man, that Jimmy, even if his dad was responsible for Korky
the Kat (I joke not)



2008/6/30 andrew burke <[log in to unmask]>:
> Ha, funerals. I just read a poem at one of my oldest friend's funeral
> - a poem I posted here the other day. I was a little choked up by the
> end, and left the mike to the celebrant, who mouthed these words in
> syrupy tones: A lovely little tribute ...
>
> Awk! I nearly laughed in bitter reply, but kept my composure. The
> widow noticed and rang me after to congratulate meon not reacting.
>
> Andrew
>
>
> 2008/6/30 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>:
>> Hey, Rob, Patrick, Roger
>>
>> the really bad thing last week was Brian's funeral service (the
>> reception afterwards was alright). He was very much a hard-nosed
>> atheist, and his family weren't all that religiously inclined, but as
>> the timing of his death took him by surprise (ha ha) he hadn't made
>> arrangements for the service. So he got this Salvation Army General
>> (they do this stuff on a rota, it's well-paid) who put us all through
>> his own particular version of hell for half-an-hour. Brian didn't have
>> children but his sisters did, so I found myself having to witness
>> these little kiddies being reduced to tears while this self-satisfied
>> lunatic in a mock British Army nineteenth century uniform went on and
>> on. He didn't even let us do Psalm 23, he read instead his own rewrite
>> of it.
>>
>> By contrast, the previous one I went to, I'm getting very good at
>> funerals, (no wonder I like Bach) was an old-style Anglican thing. The
>> deceased was no Christian, nor were his family, but the service was
>> conducted with real sensitivity, we sang Psalm 23, Abide with Me,
>> chanted together the Lord's Prayer, and everybody had a little +good+
>> cry.
>>
>> Dave the sort of Arminian.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2008/6/30 Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>:
>>>> PS VB got him self baptized into all the main religions just to be on
the
>>>> safe side
>>>
>>> That was Thomas Hardy's mother's attitude to baptism -- "It can't do any
>>> harm, and it might do some good" -- the flip-side of Pascal's Wager.
>>>
>>> Though I'm surprised that a hard-nosed atheist like you would allow
that.
>>>
>>> If, of course, the term "allow" applies to anything VB wishes -- I'd
sure as
>>> hell be reluctant to come between him and his just (or even unjust)
desires.
>>> Or deserts.
>>>
>>> R.
>>>
>>> (As an aside, if it's pertinent, the pre-eminent British Milton scholar
>>> rivals Patrick in his militant commitment to a denial of the deity.)
>>>
>>> {Mind you, and this probably shouldn't be said, about the best in my
book
>>> editors of Milton, now in the USA, was taught by the high-school
off-shoot
>>> of the London School of Economic Studies.  [sic! -- *not the LSE].  And
that
>>> bunch of nutters have to be about as off-the-wall as Scientologists.}
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Bircumshaw
>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>



-- 
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk