Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
Missing You (parts 4 & 6)
Missing You (parts 4 & 6) - Penelope Shuttle
Missing You was written mostly in the second year after [her husband] Peter's death, and it is about bereavement.
Missing You (parts 4 & 6)
4
The rainbow is not enough,
nor the flood
My eye can’t see enough,
nor my ear absorb sufficient silence
January is not enough,
nor June
Books are not enough,
nor the El Grecos
Christianity is not enough,
nor Judaism
China is not enough,
nor India
Good luck is not enough,
nor absolution from the bad
Jasmine is not enough,
nor the rose
Kingdoms are not enough,
nor the oldest city in the world,
without you
6
Like a tough Polish soldier
you put your clean shirt on wet
Like a rainbow without red,
you troubled the sky
You were my sower sowing wide,
my queue dans la bouche
You loved the top-knotted Islamic angels
with their steep wings of gold and blue
You preferred astronomer’s weather,
sciences of the birds
You were a prayer across the Orinoco,
a Tiber fitting me to perfection
from Redgrove’s Wife (Bloodaxe, 2006), © Penelope Shuttle 2006, used by permission of the author.