Monday, February 25, 2013

Robert Friend: "The Last Year"


This is the last year.
There will be no other,
but heartless nature
seemingly relents.
Never has a winter sun
spilled so much light,
never have so many flowers
dared such early bloom.
The air is brilliant, sharp.
Never have I taken
such long, long breaths.



Written after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

"The Last Year" by Robert Friend, from Dancing with a Tiger: Poems 1941-1998, edited by Edward Field, 2003. © Jean Shapiro Cantu.

Image: "Breath of Life," acrylic painting with charcoal overlay by Dawn Thibodeaux, 1998 (originally black and white).


2 comments :

  1. Beautiful, but sad too, that the dying and already dead have to remind those of us still living that life is a beautiful thing. How awful of us...

    ReplyDelete
  2. This feels so visceral. Thank you as always for this collection that lives on past the end of the project.

    ReplyDelete

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