Missing You Already
What’s two hundred and twenty-five years
In any full-blooded scale of things?
Not all that much really –
There are some who still feel,
Against all the literary evidence,
That Homer sat down to the Iliad
Not all that long ago,
Or at least not so long
That we’ve forgotten the gist
Of what he said about windy Troy –
Poets have a way of persisting
Long after their lyres
Have lost their strings
And been put away in the cupboard;
Their voices have a way
Of lingering, reminding us,
At unexpected times of why it was
That we were initially so struck
By what they had to say to us.
You are certainly still there,
As real as the day before yesterday,
Saying all those familiar things
That seem every bit as important
As they were when you
First said them, reminding us
To be human first of all, and then, if we can,
To delight, in our individual ways,
In the ordinary doings of folk
And the ways of nature, to look
With your eyes and your humour,
Your passions, too, at those around us;
To share your vision of what
It is that makes this life
So precious, so amusing,
And so poignant – all of that.
We still need you, you know,
And you might be surprised
To hear just how deep and lasting
That need has turned out to be;
Especially now, when so much
Of what you wrote about
Seems a bit of a distant memory –
Fellowship in some inn somewhere
A rural dance, time in the company
Of friends – things you put into song
That we think we remember
And that we’d like to experience again.
Of course, we can do that, with you
As our companion, Robert Burns,
The party is taking place, the warmth is there
To be felt; the lights are on again.
Give us your hand – here’s ours:
All Scotland, though a little quieter now,
Is a bit happier in your company,
A bit wiser from your words.