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