PICKINGS
Poetry from NHI publications
| THE PARTY |
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Who is not here? I have invited all who said they wished to come or whom I sought. As they sit round the room I hear their small insistent voices interrupting thought. There is no vacant chair; and every kind of conversational gambit is arranged. Bishop and scientist, painter, brilliant mind clatter their cups and tell why things have changed, and what will happen, what is needed. Those I love are here, the dark brown girl, the sage whose bitter words fall wisely. Yet I close the door regretfully, I search the page of invitations for the missing name. Who is not here? Oh whose step by the door do I most anxiously await with shame? Than all these one forgotten matters more. |
| BRIAN MERRIKIN HILL |
| from New Hope International Review Vol.19 #4 Next poem Previous poem |
Pickings NHI home page Books Magazines |
 Brian Merrikin Hill 1917 - 1997 Many will be saddened by the news of the death of Brian Merrikin Hill on February 19th 1997 at the age of eighty. He will be remembered for many things: as a progressive educationalist; for his editorship of Pennine Platform; and, above all, as a poet. Hill had written poetry on and off all his life, though it was only in his later years that he had the leisure to devote himself to his art. His early poems have a wonderful precision and objectivity: "See in the fire / blue wraiths that climb / the crimson stair / beyond the flame" (POEM FOR THIS FIRESIDE). In his later work, Hill's thoughtworld pervades the poetry — a thought-world derived largely from Shelly, but frequently expressed in the images of Christianity. His sympathy is primarily with those who, like the penitent thief and Mary Magdalen, achieve redemption, and "gain identity by love" (ARDA MORA). Ian M. Emberson visit Ian Emberson's website read a review of a book about Brian Merrikin Hill by Pauline Kirk Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 24th November 2005. |