The first of Thom Gunn's poems to appear in the TLS was "Jesus and His Mother", published on August 6, 1954, when he was twenty-four years old. It appeared in his second collection, A Sense of Movement, 1957.
Gunn, who was brought up in Hampstead and went to Cambridge, settled in San Francisco in 1961. He died there in 2004.
Jesus and His Mother
My only son, more God's than mine,
Stay in this garden ripe with pears.
The yielding of their substance wears
A modest and contented shine:
And when they weep in age, not brine
But lazy syrup are their tears.
"I am my own and not my own."
He seemed much like another man,
That silent foreigner who trod
Outside my door with lily rod:
How could I know what I began
Meeting the eyes more furious than
The eyes of Joseph, those of God?
I was my own and not my own.
And who are these twelve labouring men?
I do not understand your words:
I taught you speech, we named the birds,
You marked their big migrations then
Like any child. So turn again
To silence from the place of crowds.
"I am my own and not my own."
Why are you sullen when I speak?
Here are your tools, the saw and knife
And hammer on your bench. Your life
Is measured here in week and week
Planed as the furniture you make,
And I will teach you like a wife
To be my own and all my own.
Who like an arrogant wind blown
Where he pleases, does without content?
Yet I remember how you went
To speak with scholars in furred gown.
I hear an outcry in the town;
Who carries this dark instrument?
"One all his own and not his own."
Treading the green and nimble sward,
I stare at a strange shadow thrown.
Are you the boy I bore alone,
No doctor near to cut the cord?
I cannot reach to call you Lord,
Answer me as my only son.
"I am my own and not my own."
THOM GUNN (1954)
Gunn's poetry improved after he moved to San Francisco and "went native" in our vibrant poetry scene and expansive highly politicized gay community. His best poetry is always best when it deals with real people, personalities, situations, emotions.. The strength of his poetry is usually found in the simplicity and unaffectedness of his phrasing. The biggest affectation in his writing may be the way he spelled his first name. He told me once that he decided to do this because he thought it would attract extra attention when his poetry appeared in magazines of anthologies. He said that when he moved to the United States in 1954 nobody spelled "Thom" that way. But by the 1990s the unorthodox spelling had become almost commonplace. He would have preferred to spell his name as Tom, but once he had started being published as "Thom" he couldn't switch back without maiking himself look foolish.
Robert Prager, San Francisco, California 94103 USA
Gunn's portrait of Christ as a first century Chippendale making fine furniture is wide of the mark. The mythical image has beguiled so many, inluding Gibson in his film, 'The Passion of the Christ'
Rev'd Paul Ainsowrth, Leeds, UK