Survival Guide

Survival Guide

I bought a book a life ago

To keep the wisdom in

Words to cherish, comfort, cheer

Provoke or soothe, my own

Anthology and treasure trove

Battered now and cover worn

From thirty years companionship

Trips abroad, in rucksack

Pocket, bag

Ever there, in India

Chennai's dust and shoreside sand

Recording lines from Gandhi

Rabindranath Tagore

Confucius, ancient and anon

Some thoughts

Found in a Bondi book store

Or engraved in stone

In Arlington, redolent of grief

Regret

A poem posted on a tube train

London underground, haiku emailed

From a friend, or Sidney Carter

Lord of the Dance

Guardian obituary page

Another etched in a Sussex graveyard

Or read at mother's passing/

Son's wedding/ world's welcome

For a sweet grandchild

I thank her now in retrospect

Elderly Quaker, name now gone

Who passed me her suggestion

Her emergency collection

A precious tome to rescue in event of fire

A book of wisdom, constant consolation

As faithful as a husband

Ever by my side

October 16th 2009, Hounoux