The story in Long Distance is about the death of the poet's mother and his father's pain in accepting his wife's death. In spite that the death happened 2 years ago, his father still carries on normally as if she is still there; "Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas, put hot water bottles her side of the bed and still went to renew her transport pass".
Two years have elapsed since the poet's mother died, and his father is still in a denial state however this is common, where one loses a person, where there is a very strong relationship. The denial gives us an indication as how strong the family unit was. Even Tony Harrison has not entirely comes to term with his mother's death, for he says " In my new black leather phone book there's your name and the disconnected number I still call".
Both Tony and his father know that by the end of two years, somehow should have accepted and come to term with the mother's death. This can be confirmed by the father insisting that he will only allow visitors unless he is expecting them, one should phone at least an hour before, so that he will have enough time to put his wife 's things away. As to Tony he believes that " life ends with death, and that is all". Yet he finds it difficult to let go.
Brian patten is a contemporary of Tony Harrison in his two poems " The Sick Equation" and " Looking for Dad", he shows the impact of broken marriage has on children. These poems are longer than Tony Harrison, he uses lots of metaphors and ironies to get his message across.
In "The Sick Equation" Brian makes an analogy of his home environment to that of his school. At school, there are rules and order, which one has to follow, he learnt that 1+1=2 and that " It could have been engraved on stone", and that they are "absolute" and he cannot "dispute" or "refute". He compares that to his house environment, where there is hate between his parents 1+1 remains 1.
He is tormented and traumatised by the constant dispute and hatred at home. He would rather bare physical pain than psychological pain. "..... all that household's anger and its pain stung more than any teacher's cane".
He believed that it would be best to remain one, to avoid the trauma and suffering later, he grew up with that belief. "I grew or did not grow". He tried to avoid any kind of relationship and even cut short the one where he had a relationship. He supresses his feeling and kept himself to himself.
He strongly believes that every wedding will end up in divorce. " And at every wedding ceremony, I saw the shadow of that albatross - divorce". Albatross is being used metaphorically to give an idea of extent of his belief.
Eventually Brian realised that the was wrong and that " Its absurd to believe all others are as damaged as ourselves".
In "Looking for Dad" Brian Patten is dealing with the same subject as in "The Sick Equation", the impact of divorce on a child. In this poem he uses short sentences and lots of childish humour. This gives the reader an idea of how young the poet was. Towards the end of the poem the rhymes are less which may indicate maturity.
At the beginning of the poem, Brian gets shouted at by his parents frequently to " TIDY UP YOUR ROOM!" He even gets threaten to be sent away " TO A HOUSE OF CORRECTION", if he does not obey his parent's demand.
It appears that there were lots of frustration and anger, between his parents, but instead of directing it at each other, they seemed to let it out on Brian. "When I woke up I knew it was not my room that filled Mum and Dad with so much gloom". Eventually they stopped yelling at Brian and started arguing between themselves. It became so intense that his father left.
Brian felt guilty, he thinks that he was responsible for the domestic argument and that his father left because of him.
He has since tidy up his room and was hoping that his father " will come back soon and admire my very tidy room".
The common factor which underline the three poems is family life and the relationship which exist among each member of the family, and the impact it has on children and as they grows up in adulthood.
However all is not doomed, as children grew they can overcome, the trauma suffered during childhood. This is clean in "The Sick Equation" last stanza. " I was wrong of course, just as those who brought me up were wrong. It's absurd to believe all others are as damaged as ourselves, and however I ate on, I am better off fro knowing now that gives love, by taking love all can in time refute. The lesson that our parents taught, and in The Sick Equation not stay caught".