'Coming' by Philip Larkin

This poem has a very close association with a specific place (and annual event) for me. 

 For the last (and best) years of my professional life, I worked from the Fairfield Clinic for twelve years. 

 At the end of January, coming out of the front door sometime after 5 o'clock, on clear evenings the chimneys and deep red brick upper floors of the houses across the road were brilliantly lit - above the laurel bush and thrush. as in the poem - and made me feel brilliantly alive and expectant for the new year ahead. 

 I dedicate the poem to all the doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, mental health workers and associated professionals who made the job so rewarding - if always challenging. 

 Thank you for your patience, understanding, indulgence, forgiveness - and all the companionship and fun.

 

 COMING

 On longer evenings
Light, chill and yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon
It will be spring soon -
And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene 
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.


Philip Larkin
Feb 1950




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'The Truisms' by Louis MacNiece

Image
My Dad was a treasury of truisms (or maxims?) the majority of which he would be very proud  to acknowledge would be banned as being totally unsuitable material for the internet. Mephistopheles by choice but Faust by fate in Goethe's account of the reconciliation of man's divided nature. The one he lived by though was 'profess only evil, but do only good'.  Too easy to get that the wrong way round for me.  Lofty thoughts, noble purpose, universal benevolence, marvellous aspirations, pious hopes, the best of intentions and the grandest of plans are all to be applauded, but what counts, what makes the difference, what makes a man is what he actually does.  The rules are strict on this, there is no court of appeal. Sorry it took me so long to work that one out Dad, but thanks for the tip. Make a mental note of the last line because I have a poem to come shortly from Hermann Hesse that will have relevance. THE TRUISMS His father gave him a box of truisms
Read more

'After Visiting Hours' by UA Fanthorpe

Image
Another recent interesting stay in hospital for an emergency operation brings to mind this old favourite of Ms Fanthorpe's..... I know that Jill and Jo will be interested at least.... Don't we all imagine how much more of a success we could make of life if we started off with say, the best of seven decades of life experiences? That's nonsense in medicine - innocence, naive enthusiasm, a complete ignorance of the subjective suffering of patients, an astonishing capacity to dissociate from horrible circumstances, intolerable demands, pressures and expectations- all these are fundamental survival techniques for young medical and nursing professionals just to get through the working day - and the loneliest hours after visiting hour left to you and a hundred or so patients. It is very often like a war - but maybe in the right company, good colleagues, with the kindness, good will and forgiveness of one's patients (the best are those that, despite experience, keep coming b
Read more

'She Pops Home' by Cal Clothier

Image
My daughter Eleanor would have been nine or ten when I found this poem - an early fancy for me of what the future might possibly hold and later its complete fulfilment.  From the photograph you would be able to work out that I typed this out on an old 'Olympic' office typewriter, salvaged from the community trust offices where I went to work in 1990. The model without a 'spellcheck'. She will be popping home at the end of July from Spain.
Read more