Roundel Nouveau -- George WWB Hughes

Stepping out of the chronology a little bit here, my cousin Alicia Bee has written a poem about George WWB Hughes that will be published in her new book release "The Book of the Dead and Wounded".

Here's what she has to say about the book:

Melbourne writer Alicia Bee’s second collection of poetry captures the limbo left from the grief and funerary process of loosing loved ones, which she likens to an injured state in a hospital.

The Book of The Dead and Wounded celebrates the lives of the deceased in prose, and asks those that are left behind to respond with meditation, tears and anger. Tributes to dead people are boxed in the first book section like a museum collection of lifelike stuffed animals; that remind us that our memories preserve mortality after the grave. The cringe surrounding emotions, fear of discussions of suicide and melancholy, are made taboo in glorious detail in this important release designed to change your reaction to death.

Alicia Bee writes about her relatives, friends and dead pets; exploring aging and the afterlife, in a book that tells us again that it is okay to think about the dead and the lessons they have taught us. If poetry was ever described as depressing the form is taken as strength, for Alicia Bee revels in the dance of macabre arranging this dried flower display as a shrine for your bookshelf.

For more information about Alicia Bee and her book, visit her website.

In the poem about George WWB Hughes, Alicia says she used quotes taken from some of his tributes. Here is the poem.

Roundel Nouveau – George WWB Hughes

Alicia Bee 5.5.11©

A small group of men stood in the lounge of the Sydney Y,

With laughter and bantering good fellowship they farewell,

One of their own returning south after vacation fly,

They were saying au revoir but they should have said goodbye.

Then news that shocked all associations in the commonwealth,

Our friend George Hughes was dead, collapsed at the post where he fell,

Thanks be to Heaven that death was painless from the good life dealt.

His name synonymous with all that noble in mankind,

A leader of world renown has passed from our midst and belt,

The man was laid to rest under a glorious blue sky,

They were saying au revoir but they should have said goodbye.

END. Alicia Bee © 2011.