White -Water Rafting and Palliative Care
for my late wife, Gloria
If I had understood (when down the river
you and I went swirling in that boat)
that there were those who knew the ways of water
and how to use the oars to keep afloat
I might have been less deafened by the worry,
less stunned by thoughts of what lay up ahead
(the rocks, the darkness threatening to capsize daily),
if I had only realised instead
that help was all around me for the asking
I never asked, and therefore never knew
that such additional comfort could have helped me
in turn to be more help in comforting you.
THE SILVERBIRD 