Poem: Manchester

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Manchester

They have gone ahead of us,

for they felt the danger we were in

and gave all they had to keep us from hate.

Hate can hurt their happiness,

but nothing can hurt their hope.

They have left the currency of sorrow.

There is nothing left that is small,

or trivial, or unimportant, or low;

the streets are empty of pettiness,

for all tears hunger for greater things

and nothing is greater than love.

Duncan McGibbon

Duncan McGibbon is a Catholic poet. He writes: I was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1949. I attended St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill and King’s College London. He was a member of the Poet’s Workshop which ran through the Sixties to the Nineties where mymentors were among others, Philip Hobsbaum, George MacBeth, Leonard Clark , Peter Porter and Alan Brownjohn. 1 began publishing in journals in the 70’s. 1 lived and worked in Geneva and Berne, commuting between my British and Swiss workshops, until moving to Bath. 1 toured Australia, read at the Melbourne Festival and was a prizewinner at the Wells Literary Festival. My Workshop (1984) celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary with an anthology, Divers. 1 published my first collection, Consolations in December2010.1 am an active on-line journalist. My poems have appeared in the Summer edition of the Salzburg Review and a short story in the collection, Jigsaw (Berne.) 1 am a poetry Convenor at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. Bath.

For more information see: http://duncanmcgibbonpoet.yolasite.com/home.php