top of page

Being Transported: a poem by Ted Witham


Photo: a 14th-century building in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy, image by sebastiano iervolino, on Pixabay.
























Gubbio, Umbria, Italy, image by sebastiano iervolino,

on Pixabay




Being Transported

 

 

This yearning to go is hard to bear,

To come to accept that there’s no returning.

 

My powered wheelchair won’t go on the cobbles

of old Jerusalem and the places Jesus walked:

Dead Sea and Jordan by documentary but

The actual road to Israel stays vexing blocked.

 

This yearning to go is hard to bear,

To renounce this desire for life-long learning.

 

I won’t climb again Assisi’s hills

be pilgrim where the wolf from Gubbio

submitted to him and find the silence

with Clare and her stern path of joy.

 

This yearning to go is hard to bear,

To follow the Saints my daydream still burning.

 

But I have my passport christened for joy

of travel beyond death to states unknown:

to seek his city and bathe in love

and try for size my own claimed throne.

 

This yearning to go is a joy to bear,

With Francis and Jesus to the Father returning.











Ted Witham lives in Noongar country near Perth

in the southwest of Australia. He has been writing

poems and stories since he could read. He has

been excited when they have appeared in journals

in Australia, like Studio: A Journal of Christians Writing, Indigo, and, in the U.S., like The Adelaide Review,

and in the U.K. His plays, poems, and stories have

been shortlisted in competitions. Ted is a retired

Anglican priest, and retirement has given him more

time to write. He shares his life with his wife, Rae,

and their Jack Russell terrier, Lottie. 








November 2024 issue

55 views1 comment

Recent Posts

See All

1 comentario


cmbharris
cmbharris
17 nov

"This yearning to go is a joy to bear." Wow.

Me gusta
bottom of page