Letters

Since that first meeting we spent a lot of time together, either in person or on the telephone. There was always so much to talk about that we would exhaust each other trying to vie for attention.

David loved life, people and ideas. And many of those ideas went into his sensitive poetry.

The last year of his life has been a battle against cancer, that dreaded fear that affects so many. Sadly, last week he lost that fight,but throughout, his optimism and humour stayed with him.

He was a beautiful person who lived in the moment and had an inexhaustible passion for people and the world around him.

I will miss his wisdom, his friendship andhis laughter.

Here is a wonderful extract from Rural Pursuits, a poem by David which perhaps describes his last journey:

He was driving and it was dark.
He was driving in the darkness of winter
towards the house. Lights were visible
over the hedges, beyond the fields,
in the distance, in the darkness,
in the winter darkness.
The sky was blue-black, flickering
with starlight. He was driving and
it was dark…

Mike Dempsey, Studio Dempsey, by e-mail