Delivering the Thursday Poem with Mark Raffills

The Thursday Poem10 September 2020THOSE WHO COME AND ARE NOT SEENA miscarriage, a still born baby; the loss cannot be imagined. No comfort in the black, hollow night for the mother or father or those waiting expectantly the new arrival. We were once given a small pair of gift-wrapped shoes – this was to announce the coming birth of our first grandchild. Sadly, the shoes still sit on my shelf, unworn… and mothers and fathers who have suffered this loss, sit those who come and are not seen, on the shelf of their hearts, always. Song is Ainsley Apirana’s, ‘First Born’. Video by Dr Obadiah Jeff Simmonds. Words below.Those who come and are not seenI’m wondering about those footprintsand the hollow in your heart and thetide that comes upon us all and leavesagain, having cleansed us from the fall,I’m wondering about the momentswhen this anguish sought to strike usdown and close our eyes to the dreamingthat lingers near us still.So, I hold you in my father’s arms andwe talk about small shoes that makelarge prints in hope and expectation;about broken reeds that stand unbruisedon rippled sands where sunlight skips;about the name that sleeps upon on our lipsas words come calling across the deep,empty echo, like a hammering in the night,whose distance we cannot easily cross,for, on our own, bread is sometimesharder than a stone.Mark Raffills

Posted by Mark Raffills on Wednesday, September 9, 2020