Clive James’ Poetry in Full Bloom

One of my writer-heroes, Clive James, has been ill for the past several years yet his poetry burns anew even though it’s shadowed in sadness for a life fully lived and now in decline. Here are the last two stanzas to his recent poem, Event Horizon:

“Into the singularity we fly
After a stretch of time in which we leave
Our lives behind yet know that we will die
At any moment now. A pause to grieve,
Burned by the starlight of our lives laid bare,
And then no sound, no sight, no thought. Nowhere.

What is it worth, then, this insane last phase
When everything about you goes downhill?
This much: you get to see the cosmos blaze
And feel its grandeur, even against your will,
As it reminds you, just by being there,
That it is here we live or else nowhere.”

See his glorious website here.

TLS, May 10, 2013