A Touching Tribute

One of our members, and local Celebrant David Brittain forwarded this touching item which we're delighted to publish. Be sure to click on Read More to see the whole piece.

In tribute to the late Chris Black, who's Humanist funeral took place at Bedford Crematorium on the 13th August 2014, his grandson (and Young Humanist) Jacob Shale, of Plantsbrook School in Sutton Coldfield composed this wonderful poem in his memory:

The Splendour of the Naked Sky

Meddling hands,
Tending out the beauty of a towering rose
That yet cowers before the wild flower,
Growing prouder and taller,

Magnificent without the Gardener's touch
But both in time,
Blacken and perish and blow away,
And though the silent wind will carry both off,

The wild flower owned itself,
The Gardener has previously, and may well
Grow another towering rose,
Though its beauty can never be as cherished as the wild flower,

Brilliant without supervision

by Jacob Shale

Jacob explains "This poem is dedicated to my grandfather in memory of his humanist views. He believed that just because there isn’t a paradise above doesn’t mean that we can’t create one down here and that life is precious even without the oversight of a deity. Within the poem, the Gardener symbolises a God. The Gardener’s rose represents a life guided by a deity and the wild flower an existence in which a deity plays no role."