This morning I wandered in my mind back along the tunnel of time to the mid-1960's, and in particular, to the great friendship I enjoyed with the poet Richard Ball who lived on the border between Wales and England. Born in Maesbury, Shropshire, when I met him first it was whilst he was employed as a desk Sergeant at the police station in Bedminster, Bristol.
I was privileged to be the first publisher to publish his work in book format, and his book about the Titanic was duly released in 1968 under the title The Last Voyage of the Titanic. It's an epic poem filled with the facts and dramas of the ill-fated ship, and helped to establish him to be recognised as a serious poet. The following year, 1969, I published In Memory of Dylan Thomas, a series of poems crafted in similar style to Thomas, and also included in the slim volume was another mini-epic poem entitled Rearguard Action at Dunkirk, a subject well-known to Richard Ball who had been one of those evacuated from the Dunkirk beaches. The photograph above shows Richard Ball with (a very youthful) me at the launch of his book The Last Voyage of the Titanic.
In this volume he included a poem as a tribute to our friendship which I reproduce below, and which I feel greatly privileged by.
VISIT OF A FRIEND
Written on a serviette, whilst having a meal with his wife,
and Colin Gordon-Farleigh at 9 p.m. on the 27th November, 1968.
And then I would see him
climb the stairs,
this friend,
who brings a quiet
to this disease of thought ―
and I would greet him
cheerfully,
raiding his store
of the rare words
that did not come
before his visiting.
Sometime
they will help me,
perhaps not now,
but when his
passing at the door
casts shadow in the light,
and the lone room
shouts of him once more,
and tells me ―
this is the time
that he speaks on,
and I must write.
No comments:
Post a Comment