THE MASTER EXITS TO LIFE
The elderly poet announced, seemingly
relieved and not sounding like giving up,
that the new one would be his last
collection. Odd, how one can give up
what has defined him in the eyes
of others, what has been the public
face of his life for almost seventy years
and act like it was all a burden, and that
leaving it behind, abandoning it made
him none the less, not preparing to die
but go on, to the other parts of his life
the same - like he was calling time
on a hobby he had had enough.
Somehow, we are disappointed,
disappointed and more - betrayed.
Didn't he value his work as much
as we, who have given so much
of us and our time to it down the short
years of our own life, until now
somehow made better by his words
turning to images and part of us.
We expected, took for granted
a death on the battlefield of art;
a final poem on death-bed,
a careful arrangement of final collection
on the eve of death, to be released
posthumously, the final message
received with warmth, longing
and hope of poetry surviving death.
Now he survives his own poetry,
walking away from it, leaving
it in our hands and minds
somehow diminished.
Do what you will,
he seems to say,
it doesn't concern me
anymore.
05.09.2018
