I had been trying to find a poem I wrote after the funeral of a school teacher much loved by her pupils, and eventually tracked it down:

All we in our sad certainty
of sudden wrenching loss could see
were the coffin and the flowers
how could mourners know that you rose
too quick and vivid for repose
too impatient to rest in peace
soared in expansion and release
into old, transfigured powers
lost in the spell of mortal hours

But you, astonished by new loveliness
and wonder, still could not ignore distress
turned in compassion towards the weeping girl
grieving man, and boy, one long-fingered hand
laid softly against your heart, the other
reaching to touch them, anguish in your face
and then, encircled in their last embrace
hold the children orphaned of their mother
till between joy and sadness forced to leave
your friends, you move between them towards the light
your unseen smiles for comfort as they grieve
tearful pupils, who knew that they were known
in the quick intelligence of your glance
you pass, they feel the aura of the dance
then go unseen out of the scope of sight

Scent of roses, floating petals falling
meets the sound of choral voices soaring
thus we part, our fading farewells calling

Red Clover

St Tredwell's Chapel across the Loch

Mrinal Miri

Two or three years ago I was invited by Jyotirmaya Sharma (http://uohyd.academia.edu/JyotirmayaSharma)  to contribute to a volume of essays that he co-edited celebrating the work of Professor Mrinal Miri:
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Grounding_morality.html?id=lT8oAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

This was around the time that Miri took over the Journal of the Indian Council for Philosophical Research and I was honoured to be invited by Miri to become a member of the Editorial Advisory Board ... Three years in to this editorship Miri discovered that his editorial contract was not to be renewed:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3367865.ece

It would be invidious to say too much in the wake of Miri's dignified silence, but it is good to see a kind of poetic justice in his recent appointment to the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/article3581469.ece

I have neglected this blog ... I suppose it works best as a sort of running commentary, but I have been too involved in writing recently to write here ... more will come soon ...

Goodness, is it really almost a year since I wrote anything on this blog? I need to get back to it but meanwhile here is a little squib:

http://philosophyinthecity.info/what-would-jesus-do-what-would-kant-say-michael-mcghee-on-st-pauls-occupation/

Remembering Neil

we lose touch with our university friends ... I still remember my first meeting with Neil as a first year student at the hall of residence, Halliday hall in Clapham Common. It was at a common room meeting, rather over-crowded, and I had a seat and he didn't and the meeting was long and the room was hot and I became more and more aware of how he was shifting from one leg to the other ... I gave him my seat and we became friends. There were three of us, Neil Collings, John Keast and me and, because there were lots of theolog students we became known as the holy trinity ... Neil, of course, was God the fatherand anyone who knew John would realise that he would have been God the Son ... and so on ... I would regularly stumble as I rushed up the stairs (I still do) and he, following ponderously behind, would judiciously calculate the least helpful moment for saying 'Careful!' The three of once went on a trip to the Lake District ... I remember us wandering around Cockermouth and visiting Dove Cottage ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/neil-collings-visionary-dean-of-st-edmundsbury-cathedral-2031135.html