Wednesday 12 October 2016

Lovely poem by Rob Cullen that will appear in his next collection 'Time to Heal'

Keeping my word.
Your back was turned as you lay
In the bed in the stink of that ward
But it was the way you raised your hand
Waving without looking that was so telling
It was as if you didn’t want to see
My leaving you in that dreadful place.
I was certain at that moment
That you’d given up on your life
And I wouldn’t see you again
At that last leaving I hesitated
And thought about going back
But what in the world would I do
Or what could I say. I could try
Urging you as I’d done before
So many times to fight and get well
So that we could bring you home.
But I knew nothing I could do
Would change anything at all
I’d kept my promise to my father
To look after you when he was gone
Nine years of seeing to your needs
Daily phone calls, weekend meals
There was nothing else to be done
I am after all my mother’s son.
The phone rang in the darkness
I picked up the receiver knowing
What would be said a strangers voice
Telling me of my mother’s passing.
I did what my father had asked
And looked after you for nine years
But it hurts that lingering thought
Somehow, in some way, I had failed you.
RAC

Wednesday 5 October 2016

5th October: caring for my Mother

Mum says “Sorry to be taking so long over this.”

I ask “What?”

I am helping her undress on the bed ready for the night. Did she mean being slow with bedpan, hand wash, eye drops?

“No,” she says. “This.”   She gestures with her head. “Dying.”

I pause in order to feel the right response. “Be true,” I think to myself.

“Are you afraid?”

“No. Not really. Just. I’m keeping you from getting on with your life.”

I wonder if she’d understand what I’ve come to understand.

Getting on with my life is happening, right under our noses. Inside, where it matters.

Growing. Becoming. Being.

It’s what we all do.


While we think we are waiting for it to start, it’s already chugging ahead. 



Later I write this poem, inspired by a book I read on quantum physics:

I am living in a field of death.
No asphodels or grim shades grieving.
This is light
Dissolving into light.

We now know that all
Is everywhere
For all time.
That we are each a
Distillation of light
And breath. A drop
Of nectar quivering
For a moment
On the skin of a petal.