0015 'Infectious Holiness'.. Poem by Michael Shepherd

Read the newspapers
from the back to the front, instead
and joy can catch you unawares

obituaries: all too often you just wish
you could have known them when
they were alive and glorious..

maybe there's a place for a special
service of celebration, memorial, honour
for all those who read their obituary
and wished they'd known them..so
get together in their honour in the hope
that something happens..

here's Murray Rogers, died at 89,
went from Britain to India to Jerusalem
to Hong Kong to the Mohawks of Ontario
to Oxford... and described as
'a priest of infectious holiness'..

just imagine - you met him by accident
one fine day, and next thing you know,
you've caught - well, they're waiting to see
whether it's a mild case, give it time,
maybe severe or even, terminal..

a bit like around this time of year,
popping into a pub in Bethlehem
or that place just outside the Temple
which is the equivalent of Speakers' Corner
or doing a bit of fishing just off the shore
of Galilee... these public places
are a hotbed of infection at this time of year

infectious holiness