Philip Dunkerley is an active member of open mic communities in the South Lincolnshire area. The former representative of the Stamford Stanza, he runs a U3A Poetry Group in Bourne, where he lives. His poems have been published in Impspired, Poetry Salzburg Review, Acumen, Magma, Orbis and elsewhere and his poetry translations from Portuguese and Spanish, and poetry reviews, have appeared in Dream Catcher, Acumen and Orbis.

Saying Goodbye

Elegy for Steve Cawte – re. 21st August 2024
Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all you need to know
— John Keats

I found out only later you were leaving –
I thought you still were with us, going on.
It was evening, I was walking home, alone,
and feeling sad because the swifts had gone.
I miss the swifts of summer, they, for me,
are truth writing beauty on the sky,
and I sometimes feel an emptiness inside
knowing I’ll lose that beauty when I die.
Suddenly, looking up, there, overhead,
a familiar silhouette in swinging flight,
a last, lone swift – as if saying goodbye,
a spectacle in early evening light.
All of us will one day say goodbye,
all of us will leave the world behind,
the beauty and the truth; you left too soon.
You, who were the best of humankind.