Thom Gunn: “The Reassurance”

...לזכר יהודה קעץˎ חבר שמכבר. בן אדם שנקטף בדמי ימיו

THE REASSURANCE

About ten days or so
After we saw you dead
You came back in a dream.
I’m all right now you said.

And it was you, although
You were fleshed out again:
You hugged us all round then,
And gave your welcoming beam.

How like you to be kind,
Seeking to reassure.
And, yes, how like my mind
To make itself secure.

–Thom Gunn

image: The candles 026 by Ravenscar

Thom Gunn: “The Man with Night Sweats”

THE MAN WITH NIGHT SWEATS

I wake up cold, I who
Prospered through dreams of heat
Wake to their residue,
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.

My flesh was its own shield:
Where it was gashed, it healed.

I grew as I explored
The body I could trust
Even while I adored
The risk that made robust,

A world of wonders in
Each challenge to the skin.

I cannot but be sorry
The given shield was cracked,
My mind reduced to hurry,
My flesh reduced and wrecked.

I have to change the bed,
But catch myself instead

Stopped upright where I am
Hugging my body to me
As if to shield it from
The pains that will go through me,

As if hands were enough
To hold an avalanche off.

–Thom Gunn (b. 29 August 1929)

Photo courtesy of the Academy of American Poets