The Saturday poem -Mylodon's guest column
Today TSP is pleased to present another Mylodon guest column.Thanks very much to her for that.
Mylodon writes :
Here it is:
I recently was cleaning out a draw prior to moving a large piece of furniture and came across a set of poems which must date back to the 1980's (they even looked Roneo'ed rather than photocopied). I got them when I was on a course about parish visiting and they were as fresh and relevant now as they were then.
One that had always struck me as extremely powerful was "Ten Types of Hospital Visitor" by Charles Causley. http://allpoetry.com/Ten-Types-of-Hospital-Visitor
Causley was a Cornish lad (shades of Sir Edward) and his work bears an effective simplicity and directness that Ned himself would no doubt have valued.
All his work bears reading, but this particular poem is particularly perceptive:
The first enters wearing the neon armour
Of virtue.
Ceaselessly firing all-purpose smiles
At everyone present
She destroys hope
In the breasts of the sick,
Who realize instantly
That they are incapable of surmounting
Her ferocious goodwill.
We've all known people like her, haven't we? In fact, all ten pen portraits are worth savouring individually. Follow the link and look at the entire poem, as it's a great mixture of sly humour and heartfelt rant against the sort of visitors who make us feel infinitely worse than we are.
Mylodon writes :
Here it is:
I recently was cleaning out a draw prior to moving a large piece of furniture and came across a set of poems which must date back to the 1980's (they even looked Roneo'ed rather than photocopied). I got them when I was on a course about parish visiting and they were as fresh and relevant now as they were then.
One that had always struck me as extremely powerful was "Ten Types of Hospital Visitor" by Charles Causley. http://allpoetry.com/Ten-Types-of-Hospital-Visitor
Causley was a Cornish lad (shades of Sir Edward) and his work bears an effective simplicity and directness that Ned himself would no doubt have valued.
All his work bears reading, but this particular poem is particularly perceptive:
The first enters wearing the neon armour
Of virtue.
Ceaselessly firing all-purpose smiles
At everyone present
She destroys hope
In the breasts of the sick,
Who realize instantly
That they are incapable of surmounting
Her ferocious goodwill.
We've all known people like her, haven't we? In fact, all ten pen portraits are worth savouring individually. Follow the link and look at the entire poem, as it's a great mixture of sly humour and heartfelt rant against the sort of visitors who make us feel infinitely worse than we are.