no Heaven to reach

I mentioned the other day, that I had a couple of tickets for an event at The Edinburgh Filmhouse - "An Evening with Tony Harrison" ...

... so very glad we went - just simply impossible to convey how powerful an evening it was. I'll try and let his poetry speak instead.

So; here's some verse about his Father (and Mother - and so much more); as taken from the pictured 2016 edition of Harrison's collected poems:


Marked with D.

When the chilled dough of his flesh went in an oven
not unlike those he fuelled all his life,
I thought of his cataracts ablaze with Heaven
and radiant with the sight of his dead wife,
light streaming from his mouth to shape her name,
'not Florence and not Flo but always Florrie.'
I thought how his cold tongue burst into flame
but only literally, which makes me sorry,
sorry for his sake there's no Heaven to reach.
I get it all from Earth my daily bread
but he hungered for release from mortal speech
that kept him down, the tongue that weighed like lead.

The baker’s man that no one will see rise
and England made to feel like some dull oaf
is smoke, enough to sting one person’s eyes
and ash (not unlike flour) for one small loaf.

---

Tony Harrison (1937 - )

---