Joseph Matthew Derham 1925 - 2011

Goodbye Joe

Joseph Matthew Derham

1925-2011

My father Joe passed away peacefully today; an illness bravely borne and a death prepared for. Below is a poem of his from 1992, which says it all. May he rest in peace.

Death is not a Cul-De-Sac

And we must Die.
Sometimes the thought is death itself,
And all endeavour strickened
By its chill need,
Persistent, without care.

If I could but once think
Without passion.
Take no vain advantage of my thought;
See only that which must be seen,
When gentler realities fail.

Then I might I have Dignity and Peace,
Not Happiness, nor Joy, incipient cares,
But Dignity and Peace,
Uninterrupted, acknowledged, applied.

Too shrewd to beg of Life,
Had I but the Will to Borrow of Death,
No Usurer when all is said,
I might repay His Interest on my Years,
In Retrospect.