only the death I was born with

The pictured (1996) study on the life and work of Norman MacCaig is well worth getting hold of ...

... it references one of MacCaig's 1977 poems about the death of a good friend - Angus MacLeod:


Triple Burden

I know I had my death in me
from the moment I yelled upside-down
in the world.

Now I have another death in me: yours.
Each is the image of the other.

To carry two deaths
is a burden for any man:
and it's a heavy knowledge that tells me
only the death I was born with
will destroy the other.

For a boat has sailed into
the sea of unknowing;
you are on board.

And somewhere another boat
rocks
by another pier.

It's waiting to take me
where I'll never know you again –
a voyage
beyond knowledge, beyond memory.

 ---

Norman MacCaig (1910 - 1996)

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