Poets' Corner

Number Eighteen : 20^th February 2014

Those Gone Before

What follows is a poem that my old school friend Zax (Bryan Wagner) composed for the occasion of his retirement after more than forty years of teaching English in Secondary schools. I chose to read it at his funeral as an appropriate In Memoriam. This followed his 'untimely death' on returning from a prolonged pub session and falling off the moored canal boat he'd been living on after his retirement. It had been written just after the all-day extension of pub opening hours :

Those gone before , I see them now,
Their final day attained at last.
Their end of term , their farewell bow
Their one-time future soon their past.....

Ahh , yes. At times I almost wept ,
Was even very near to hell
For fear that speech meant I'd be kept
Beyond the Time Please Now closing bell.

That awful bell that formed a frown
On every face behind a bar ,
If by chance you'd want to down
That one more , joyous pint too far.

Despite the old and grumpy sod
Who says the world's insane these days
There's no respect for country , god
Or age. Long gone all traditional ways.

In one respect at least he's wrong ,
That sour , reactionary bore.
For pubs now open all day long
And so for those not yet gone before ,

For you there'll be no closing time
Nor landlord's drill square ordinance
At three , and no discordant chime
Of bar-room bell . Gone that hellish dance -

The proffered note , the urgent plea ,
The wild-eyed glances at the wrist
And panic , as the hour of three
Drew nigh , for fear we'd sober be.

But all such horror's in the past
I trust . And soon will I have , too ,
Joined those gone before. I raise my glass
To them , and farewell to all of you.

Archive

Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic Pessimism, 13^th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's Friend, 10^th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of Two Dylans, 12^th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam, 14^th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake, 25^th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet, 19^th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy, 20^th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's Sonnets, 21^st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas, 20^th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's Anthology, 19^th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William Plomer, 21^st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts , 20^th August 2013
Poets' Corner #13 – William Dunbar, 20^th September 2013
Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub Thoughts, 20^th October 2013
Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music, 20^th November 2013
Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia & Emily, 20^th December 2013
Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of Icarus, 16^th January 2014
Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone Before, 20^th February 2014
Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard Kipling, 20^th March 2014
Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell, 20^th April 2014
Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest Proposal, 20^th May 2014
Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray and The Eighteenth Century, 20^th June 2014
Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan Poe, 18^th July 2014
Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly, 19^th August 2014
Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be Saved, 24^th December 2015
Poets' Corner #26 – Wants, 20^th January 2016
Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel Johnson, 15^th February 2016
Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot, 10^th March 2016
Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, 18^th April 2016
Poets' Corner #30 – Leonard Cohen, 12^th November 2016