Thought for the Week: My arm round you

Gerard Benson’s sonnets, 13 and 14, from Bradford and Beyond

by Gerard Benson 15th August 2014

Joan Armatrading at St George’s Hall,
and we are in front stalls with the fans
(having sneaked downstairs in the interval).
Joan takes the mike in eloquent dark hands,
begins her first song, cool, restrained. Guitars,
percussion, keyboards ride along with her.
The songs change: some are sweet, some quirky. There’s
that swift staccato burst, that soaring slur
that lifts a high note on an endless breath;
then schmaltzy strings, then energy again.
You’ve had a mournful year. Your father’s death
was hard. Your grief was laced with physical pain.
And there were other anguishes. But now,
just now, we live these songs, my arm round you.