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Thursday 5 May 2016

THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY and two related poems, by James L.S.Carter






                                                                                 

                                                                                   





                                                       THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY

                                                               by James L.S. Carter



                                                                                   



                                             Dedicated to Lieutenant Grant Carter (1960-1981)


                                             The amphibious motor vessel the "Ardennes"

                                             Sailed from Faslane on an occasional grim

                                             Yet grand: a year after the death of him

                                             Whose bier was borne by his own troop of men,

                                             To drop his ashes in the Gareloch sea
 
                                             At that same place where he was wont to sail,
,
                                             After capsizing, righting without fail

                                             As skilful in the craft as he could be,

                                             Fateful canoe that stopped in waves that sped

                                             As fast as flowers we threw upon the tide,

                                             Gliding away along the vessel's side,

                                             Into the mirrored blue horizon fled!

                                             As Signalmen held the chute, with Padre's prayer,

                                             As waters lapped, I felt he was there.





                                                                       



                                                                     


                                 LINES WRITTEN FOR MY BROTHER'S FUNERAL

                                                            by James L.S. Carter





                                                                             


                                     

                                       He gave great love from his birth to his death

                                       And he received great love.

                                       He was full of love all his life

                                       And he was full of life

                                       He was a bright and rising star

                                       And like a bright and falling star

                                       Vanished from us like a rainbow in July

                                       May God who loves him love him for ever





                                                        ARCAS WILL NEVER DIE


                                                              by James L.S. Carter




                                                                     



                                  They say that Arcas died in a canoe

                                  Caught in a stopper in a German weir,

                                  That there was nothing anyone could do

                                  To save young Arcas from a heavenly bier.

                                  They say that young Prince Arcas is no more,

                                  Never will call to send his love again,

                                  That he has parted for some distant shore

                                  Where spates will never flood a river's glen

                                  But we prefer to think of him at Rhu,

                                  Capsizing many times his skilful boat.

                                  Successful in his parents' worried view,

                                  As if it were a game to stay afloat.

                                  Then in the life of living memory

                                  He stays alive: Arcas will never die,



                                                                   


        

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