Sonnet by Bob Copper

This is one of the many poems written by Bob Copper throughout his lifetime. He wrote it six months after his wife, Joan, had died prematurely of cancer aged only 62 years. It goes some way to describe the family’s own emotions now, just six months after Bob, himself, died.

Spring, 1984

Oh, I can laugh and jest and even sing,
And wear the outward trappings of a clown;
Can meet my friends and pass the time of day
(“Oh hullo, Kitty, how’s your father’s foot?”)
But sometimes in the early days of Spring
When Arcturus comes peeping o’er the down,
The fire is lit and tea-things put away,
Your blackbird, like an errant speck of soot,

Comes hopping across the lawn towards the door
Hoping to hear you call and take the crumbs
Of your largesse, and as he turns to go
Something of me goes with him and the Spring
Is robbed of sweetness - and for evermore
The daffodils, it seems, when April comes,
Will not dance quite so gladly when they know
You can no longer share the joy they bring.

Something that should bestir, declines and sleeps;
And the willow, like a frozen fountain, weeps.

Bob Copper, 1984