Final Breath

Final Breath

      in memory of  Pearse Hutchinson

In that last moment your breath halted in your mouth;
the air teetered on  your tongue; on last taste perhaps.

Death flew across the room, your eyes followed it,
leaving us, exiting through then walls.

Vivaldi played on, 
emerged from behind your troubled breathing.

For that few moments,
baroque splendour was your breath condensing around us.

Slimming for the Beach

Thanks to Philip Casey for plugging this blog on his own blog "Slimming for the Beach". Here's the link: http://blog.philipcasey.com/
Saw Philip on Friday night at an 80th Birthday Symposium celebrating the poetry of Pearse Hutchinson.Interesting to hear, at one point, many of the poets in attendance described as belonging to a subculture that produced a less hard, less academicized brand of poetry than that which followed.