1980
With deep sadness, I heard the awful news,
My favourite stand up comedian Richard Pryor,
It was June 9th while being in a drug-induced psychosis,
He poured rum over his body and set himself on fire.
1981
It was cold December everywhere was covered with snow,
I was living in Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 24th day,
Everything was in order, all was going remarkably well,
I said I do and married my wife Elizabeth Daye.
1983 - 1984
My wife gave birth to my first daughter, Lily, Louise,
She was a beautiful child not because she was mine,
Sofie, Lexie was born giving me daughter number two;
That was May the year after on a sunny morning on day nine.
1986
Shocked I was by the sudden death of my beloved father,
I was the youngest and looked very much like him;
Six months after that, I was to receive the same news,
The death of my grandmother Kimberley but we called her Kim.
WHEN THE WORLD SLEEPS
This man Christ,very God and
very man,this great design and ‘til
the end of time,to make all sinners
‘mine’. To commemorate this
sacrifice this glorious sacrament,
a preparation daye, a solemne
Feast of mercy and miracles.Pledges
of Thy love, sacred institutions
regularly to be said, of prayer and
meditation,lest they wither away,
dead, with time.When all the world
is asleep we should’st watch upon the
Day-lilie of life as if the sun were
already set.When all is gone,and
all is dust, deformity ,desolation
and stress.Keep me Lord from hours,
and the powers, of the darknesse.
From Henry Vaughan’s Solitary Desolations
*A Phrasis is a structured verse where the poet uses selected prose phrases of another writer’s(not a poet) to compile unique poetry therefrom as a tribute thereto,the word phrasis is Greek for phrase.
Listen to me read this phrasis of mine on youtube under the name ichthyschiro
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.