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3rd May, 2024

Friday Poem – ‘Distance’ by Claire Williamson

Photo of shelves crammed tight with books.

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Distance’ by Claire Williamson from her collection Visiting the Minotaur.

Distance
for PD
One day you woke, sensitive to the light,
and decided it was time to take the books back.
You marched them –
Nietzsche, Ricard, Rilke, Valéry –
down through that wet town
to the second-hand bookshop,
wiping tears from your freckled cheeks
with the heel of your palm.
You told the puzzled assistant
you couldn’t cope any more –
would she take these books
off your twenty-something hands?
I know you miss
those dead wise voices,
loyal companions for so long.
Looking back, you’re sorry about the distance
between your bookshelf and the shop,
the friends you gave away,
loving everything, even us, in retrospect.