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Gary Speed

Andrew Harris

Friday, September 23rd, 2016

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Perhaps the footballing lion heart,
the athleticism, the Corinthian spirit
blinded us to the other dimensions;
his being, his experience, his reality

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 For was he first not a player but a man
entitled to be flawed, to look inside,
acknowledge the uncertainty,
feel the burden and weep

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Did our admiration for those gifts
manifest as pressure in his mind
or was each match day a distraction
he savoured, a freedom to forget

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Maybe we defined him too narrowly,
an expectation that living would flow
with the same natural grace,
the effortless facility of his play

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Could we have carried the Saturday man
safely past Tuesday’s ordinariness;
hope flickers in the ashes of disbelief
that a restless spirit has been freed

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/gary-speed-2/