A memorial plaque to the poet Tessa Ransford was unveiled earlier this week in the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, the place she herself brought into being through her vision and enthusiasm. This poem by Chrys Salt offers a warm tribute to Tessa the poet and Tessa the doughty campaigner for the cause of poetry.
FOR TESSA – AFTER THE FUNERAL
I was dry eyed at your funeral.
The hymns, the prayers, the perfect eulogy,
I watched through glass.
~
But afterwards driving the high road home to Galloway
stripped of its ritual - I felt your loss,
hills bruised with heather,
birds weaving a jagged course
as if to join the tattered cloud
and make sky whole again.
~
I tried some words out in my head to fit.
~
How you would miss
the Autumn Solstice at Cairn Holy now.
the tail of your last summer,
touching the time clock of the standing stones
with radiance.
~
What I would miss.
Your voice, colonial with a dash of Scots,
passionate, silvery, mostly kind,
steel in defence of those things right and good.
Three of a kind, now only Two.
Emails, postcards, messages,
thanking, congratulating, short, considerate.
I have one from the hospice on my desk.
It just says 'Thank you, love from Tessa' in a shaky hand.
Wasn’t dying enough to think about?
~
What's left behind when all is said and done
not much for most of us.
‘The leaves by which we live’
swept up by final Autumns one by one.
~
But this, I know with certainty
The Library you built for us,
the books you made, your passion
for a life of poetry,
its power to change hearts and minds.
These are your standing stones,
your legacy. These shine.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article