Frolicking (Birthday poem for Richard)

I love late March and April - the time of dark and pale butterflies. When I lived in Simonstown, there were so many that they softly slapped your skin as you walked through clouds of them. Now again, in Hogsback, they create a happy fizz about the legs - they generally fly low, keeping close to the grassheads.

When I walked about this morning, in search of a photograph for a friend's birthday wish, a pair of them kept still enough to let me get close. One of them stayed long enough for me to get a solo shot. He let me come so near, my phone's camera couldn't get his face in focus!

I thank my friend for allowing me to share his birthday poem with you, so you, too, can joy in the feel of the butterflies.

Frolicking
Birthday poem for Richard 

Black butterflies
- on brambles and
on forest grasses -
frolicking.

- Silke Heiss, 28th March 2019

Closer and closer my camera came, but he did not stir.

Butterfly pair alighting.

Entymologists please note:
These "black butterflies" are the Common Bush Brown (Bicyclus Safitza Safitza), but the poem needs their blackness for lightness of sound. "Brown" followed by "brambles" in the next line would ground both the poem and the butterflies! Poetic licence ensures the poem's as well as the creatures' integrity, each in their own context.
   

Norman's birthday. A king-sized quilt of a blogpost with a hitherto unpublished poem by him.

Today would have been Norman's 69th birthday. I have put together this blog post for the sake of all who appreciated him and who wish to continue to honour his memory - hopefully smiles will break through any tears on your faces.
I loved to spoil him, I loved to be his wife, it was one of the most fulfilling tasks life ever asked of me.
I am sad not to be able to be his wife anymore, but I am grateful for the few years we were given.
He treated me well; he always put my and others' well-being before his own - to a fault; he shouldered the loads life and, indeed, others unfairly put on him; he never blamed me or others for his faults; his dearest wish was to be a decent human being. He showed me, by living them, the qualities it takes to make a true man. I am so very lucky that he shared himself with me to the extent that he did.

All photos are taken by me, with the exception of the photo of Norman at the Ecca reading, which was taken by Lara Kirsten.

3.10.2012 Norman on his 63rd birthday. Picnic in the Arboretum, Hogsback.

3.10.2012 At The Bluff, The Edge, Hogsback, with his friend John van Wyngaard 

3.10.213 Norman at 64, a wild joyride with me on the back of 'The Red Devil' on the contour path of Hog 1.
As far as I know, this was his favourite photo of himself.

3.10.2014
A deeply unspoiled man suspicious of too much comfort, Norman enjoyed the cultural wealth I brought into his life. 

3.10.2014 Norman reads from 'This Questioning Terrain', the then newest Ecca Poets book. The Rose Theatre, Hogsback.

3.10.2015 Norman on his 66th birthday

3.10.2015 He loves his shirt. Birthday dinner at The Edge Restaurant, Hogsback.

The following poem demonstrates the kind of man Norman was - please read it not so much for what he is saying about me, but for what it shows you about him - how he enjoys my wifely fuss and giving, because he sees it gives me joy!

To be herself

You painted a splendid Sunbird
on a shirt
for me

- made me cakes,
laid out a sumptuous picnic under a tree;
now

you're standing me dinner
with fine champagne and crisp beer:
my birthday

- that you celebrate
with all the radiance of giving
your joyous heart

needs
to be
herself.

- Norman Morrissey, 3/10/2015

3.10.2016
Norman on his 67th with the shirt that marked the launch of the Ecca book that year, 'Gold in Spring'.