23/01/2018
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Dr Alison Jack of Edinburgh University's School of Divinity.
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Script
Norman MacCaig was a Scottish poet of remarkable clarity and conciseness. His background in Classics perhaps encouraged this approach. MacCaig died, aged 85, on this day in 1996, but his poetry remains popular to this day. Many Scottish school pupils will be reading and thinking about his work as they prepare for their National 5 English exam in May.Β
One of his most popular poems is βVisiting Hourβ. The poem describes a visit to an elderly person in hospital, whose life is near its end. The tone is detached as the speaker walks to the place where the patient lies, noting the cheerfulness of the nurses who have been involved in so many farewells: βI will not feel. I will not/Feel until/I have to.βHe describes the reduced figure he sees before him, and realises
βbetween her and medistance shrinks till there is none leftbut the distance of pain that neither she nor Ican cross.βHe is βdizzyβ and βclumsyβ in this moment of endings, but there is a connection between them: βShe smiles a little at thisblack figure in her white cave.βThe poem is sad and regretful, capturing perfectly the alien world of the hospital to those who visit. And, of course, the gradual breaking of the bond between the living and those who are preparing to leave this world. In those moments, a smile can indeed mean everything.ΒLiving God, comfort those who face a difficult visit to hospital today. Be with those who sit at the bedside of the dying. Hold in the palm of your hand those who make that final journey alone. Amen.
Broadcast
- Tue 23 Jan 2018 05:43ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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