Sweet solitude, my supple slave,
Delicious concubine
Sweet solitude, my supple slave,
Delicious concubine
Dark sea dark land lie close beneath
The muffling guilt of night,
Come death suddenly from the sea or cloud,
With the blast of thunder and the blinding shroud,
My nine-hours son, so wrinkle-faced
Wry concentration of distaste
To find your Person so displaced,
… obliterating in instant mini-time
a universe of suns and planets
with or without their myriad forms of life,
Poems selected here cover many aspects of love for another person, most often for his wife Honor Mary, but also for others
Ten years since that incalculable day
When from all worlds we know you slipped away
Knowing the time was short
Yours was the instant thought
‘Let’s go up to the Rocks!’
For ever is the promise. I will trust
To share with you the same light and same dust.
Six years since your last birthday in our midst
seems yesterday, in this same so-loved house,