Goodbye Joe
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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.
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1 comment:
I remember this poem Roger. What a lovely photograph too. Rose h.
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