COURAGE
In the stretch from here to where the river bends
around the meadows, there have been drownings –
crowded pleasure boats upturned, youths,
desperate with raucous bravado,
jumping from the suspension foot bridge.
The river, which is a whorl and tension
of conflicting, muddied undertows,
seems linear today, almost emollient.
A children’s cancer charity has fastened
awareness-raising memento mori
to the wrought iron railings of the bridge.
The cards and photographs – obscuring
the occasional lovers’ padlock – are tied
together, and to the rails, carefully,
almost gaily, with golden ribbon.
The charity promotes research. The bridge’s
wooden walkway registers each human step,
shifts with each tread, beating like a slow heart.
One card begins, ‘If love could have saved you…’
We dare not imagine such loss, such
unendurable humility, such
self-effacing courage.
John Huddart
February 25, 2022It is not often that we are privileged to share river walks with dear friends, but thanks for sharing these with us. A visual treat, with old father Dee stripped of her name, elemental and historic! And gender free!
David Alexander
April 22, 2026I am reminded of the tragic drowning of Jonathan Price in the Dee over sixty years ago. A golden boy, whom everyone loved: home on vacation from his first term at Magdalen College, Oxford, he took out a sculling boat which overturned in the winter swell.
I have thought of him from time to time over the past years, and wondered what might have been; and how painful his death must have been for his parents and his brother, Nicholas.
David Selzer
April 22, 2026Thank you for your lovely remembrance, David. Jonathan is mentioned, though not by name, in another poem in this collection: THE EMBRACE OF NOTHING.