On the evening of March 13th 2024, Raymond Keene sent to me (and also sent it, independently, to my wife) this (quite unsolicited) poem in an e mail
The RelicBY JOHN DONNE
When my grave is broke up again
Some second guest to entertain,
(For graves have learn'd that woman head,
To be to more than one a bed)
And he that digs it, spies
A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will he not let'us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?
If this fall in a time, or land,
Where mis-devotion doth command,
Then he, that digs us up, will bring
Us to the bishop, and the king,
To make us relics; then
Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
A something else thereby;
All women shall adore us, and some men;
And since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.
First, we lov'd well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what we lov'd, nor why;
Difference of sex no more we knew
Than our guardian angels do;
Coming and going, we
Perchance might kiss, but not between those meals;
Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals
Which nature, injur'd by late law, sets free;
These miracles we did, but now alas,
All measure, and all language, I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.
And then I replied by explaining how it contributed to a coincidence.
For, about five days I, (at long last!) had gotten around to amending Blog entry (108). Firstly by altering the title from
The Parousia Novel
to its new heading. Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: (108) The novel about The Second Coming (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com)
And then addding the codicil of seven separate strands apropos Anna Durrant and Anne Cooper, because I thought they entwined themselves into a valid coincidence. And one not wholly distinct from the context/heading of Entry (108).
Then came Keene´s surprise e mail to each of us of a poem which I had never even heard of (although my wife had read it) with it´s reference to Mary Magdalen and exhumation.