I don't buy flowers often, so I'm making the most of these!
I listened to the reinterrment of Richard III last night thanks to the wonders of the internet and the excellent skills of those at BBC Radio Leicester. It was a very moving service and included a powerful poem (below) written by Dame Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate.
After 530 years, Requiescat in Pace, Your Grace.
--
Richard
My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,
a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown,
emptied of history. Describe my soul
as incense, votive, vanishing; your own
the same. Grant me the carving of my name.
These relics, bless. Imagine you re-tie
a broken string and on it thread a cross,
the symbol severed from me when I died.
The end of time – an unknown, unfelt loss –
unless the Resurrection of the Dead …
or I once dreamed of this, your future breath
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground.
And BBC Radio Leicester broadcasting the final ceremony, Service of Reveal right now: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioleicester