Professor Ashley Halpe, the great humanitarian I knew – I-By Rohana R. Wasala Source:Island I do not know the thin reek of blood, the stench of seared flesh, the cracked irreducible bone; I know only the thinner reek of pity, the harsh edge of self-contempt, the ashy guilt of being too old, salaried, safe, and comfortable. I would know their reasons, the rigour of their hot hate, their terrifying faith. But they have said everything in dying, a communication beyond all speech…. Ashley Halpe, ‘”April” 1971’ In the incantatory rhythm of the short meditative lyric contained in Professor Ashley Halpe’s collection of his poems entitled “Silent arbiters have camped in my skull” from which the above lines are quoted, we sense the ebb and flow of the self-assumed guilt (note the play on the word ‘ashy’ that echoes the sound of his first name) and the attendant self-contempt of a ...