Richard Selig 1929-1957

Mary O'Hara Books ::: Richard Selig 1929-1957

Among Silence

Among Silence
Richard Selig 1929 - 1957
Richard Selig, at the time a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and Mary O' Hara, a popular singer, harpist, recording artiste and broadcaster, married at Oxford in July 1956. Mary was 21 and Richard 27.

Richard, born in New York, had studied at the Occidental College, Los Angeles, (Psychology) The Museum of Modern Art, New York,(Art), The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. (Drama & Greek), The Sorbonne, Paris, (French), before finally graduating in English at the University of Washington in Seattle in August 1952.

Mary O'Hara was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1935. After a spell at the College of Art in Dublin, she became a professional singer and broadcaster. She had her own primetime Saturday night programme on BBC TV.

After the wedding they set out for New York where they lived until Richard died the following year.

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Selig's Prose poem
THE UNICORN

A SMALL REQUEST
You who feel the instructive hand of God
Raise boils and welts upon your chosen skin,
Whose self-affliction quells the offended rod
And gets you up the hillside out of sin,

You whose suffering is a sign of grace,
You whose privilege is to feel more pain,
Whose hope is Heaven and to see God’s face –
Please recall how gently falls the rain;

And when, if you remember me, you pray,
Pray thus for me: “Though he loves the earth
Too much, do not send his soul away:
Give him a small garden and a hearth”.

WHERE BUBBLES DAWDLE (Among Silence)Where bubbles dawdle, green wands wave and tadpoles jerk;
Where slow pond water slowly scurling flows,
Seeming still – the sky and half the meadow mirrored;
And moderate Nature rests in pondside reeds,
Drowses in the meadow, dreams in water volumes:
Everywhere one looks, tranquillity does soothe the gaze,
Peace placates the wild senses, and truth lies sleeping.
Look down into the pond, change your element.
Let Fancy take you. Plunge down. Your ear cannot hear,
Your lungs dare not stir. Yet blood buzzes:
Fancy feeds you air. Your eyes are clear.
You swim among silence in the green world.

(Beginning of a long poem unwritten. This was the last thing he wrote.)

Mary has put those two pieces to music and were first released on the album Recital (Valentine Music). Among Silence is also on the cd accompanying volume 1 of her harp accompaniments.

The photo left is of Mary at home in Rivendell in July 2004.
She remarried in 1987 and is now retired from singing.

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