My Father, The Enigma Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

A man who wanted no memorial is surrounded by friends.
A man who cherished solitude is enveloped by attention.
A man dubious about music is given a choral send off.

He described himself once as praying anxiously out of the window,
unaware that behind him the room was filling with riches.

His exterior was an enigma all thought they knew but whose gateway few found:
his interior was an enigma he thought he knew but whose outlet he rarely found;
like two perfectly juxtaposed hemispheres, contiguous yet discrete -
- a child whose brother, taken from him, left a wound unhealed …
- a man easily overwhelmed by love he sought to control …
- a father who gave birth to what he couldn't recognise within himself …
- a friend whose diffidence could be mistaken for indifference …
- a husband finally grateful for love he could no longer deny …

So it was that a man uncertain of faith entered the skies surrounded by angels.


A fortnight after his death, and a couple of days after his posthumous 92nd birthday 31/1/12