If I Die

• Published in: Caribbean quarterly 2003-03, Vol.49 (1-2), p.121-125
• Main Author: Morris, Marshall
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: College campuses; College instruction; English; Friendship; Higher education; Literature; Oral poetry; Parents & parenting; Piedra; Poetry; Reading; School campuses; Students; Teaching; Translations; Universities; Writing
• ISSN: 0008-6495; 2470-6302
• DOI: 10.1080/00086495.2003.11672199

[...]that was the university John was intended to be a part of - where there was room for his exuberant personal style, where his knowledge of Caribbean, English and Classical languages and literatures, and his broad interest in ideas, would be valued, where excellence in writing and teaching would be prized. John turned more and more to friends in the religious community and to lecturing abroad, moving about in the larger world of Caribbean letters, which was more comfortable to him and more receptive, and when the opportunity came, he left the University of Puerto Rico for a job teaching in a post-graduate centre under the auspices of the Episcopal Seminary in Carolina. "Figs!" he would call to Dorothy, "have you seen the folder I need?" His eyes busy, his hands busy, his mind very busy indeed, he would turn to me, to talk - in that supple, resonant, often ironical voice of his, gesturing with his large, expressive hands - about friends, the university, his teaching, something he was writing, something he was reading, perhaps a poem he thought had possibilities, never anything too personal or anything that might embarrass... All woven together, made a part of the life that John and Dorothy were composing until they came to the little house in England, with the possibility of roses and a little garden, not so very long a walk to the little Church of St. Mary, Woburn, a cosy house, filled with familiar things, in a comfortable place, where, it is true, John still dreamed of another lecture, another place, another group of listeners. A word here, a suggestion there, a note that arrived when one was needed but not expected, a connection with someone or some text or some experience that they knew would be right soon, a remembering of something they had no cause to remember, an understanding of something one might have thought no one could understand, a lovely cup of coffee, a jam made from fruit they had picked, students on the balcony, their parents beaming, 11UeTe, tell me what you think of this,...