• Poetry

    The Ship That Never Comes In:
    Philip Larkin’s “Next, Please”

    June 30, 2018 - By 

    A friend was telling me recently that she had hosted a childhood friend for a weekend visit, and in the runup to it she had greatly looked forward to the time they were to spend together. As it turned out, it was wonderful and all she had hoped for, she beamed. Which, she noted, was a great relief, because “It doesn’t always turn out that way.” Indeed it doesn’t. In his much-anthologized poem, “Next, Please,” English poet Philip Larkin, a brooding sort as perhaps a majority of poets this side of Mary Oliver are, suggested that it almost never does, and that…

  • Poetry

    The Poet Faces Death

    December 27, 2012 - By 

    As a Worship Associate in my church, I occasionally assist in services, like a high-level version of an altar boy from my Catholic boyhood. That means I get to do some reading and talking instead of leaving it all to the priest. One function is a brief personal reflection tied to the presenter’s sermon theme. The subject on this occasion was suffering and mortality, for which I used this achingly lovely poem by Susan Deborah King as grist for my comments which follow in the next post. If you prefer to listen to the poem and reflection, click on the…