A n n e W a l d m a n : K e e p i n g T h e W o r l d S a f e F o r P o e t r y

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 5 : S p e c i a l E d i t i o n

DAVID HENDERSON

Amiri Meditations — 6

So what was he thinking in those accumulated last days?

So many poetry – events – readings reading or not

his presence said so much of it all

Word after the fact

Confronted by generating states of fascism in post-modern finery

Postulated as scenarios imagined by legions of philosophical doctors of the empire,

in offices of the Republic: secret lairs, lands within lands –– law beyond law

What could Amiri say to us at points in time before his demise?

Certainly there were no institutions to house his thought

something somewhere from the backend and substantial to some degree

of the thoughts he had congressed,

We kept the faith for him, but there was no receptacle large enough for his

beautiful mind and crazy courage.

But then again he knew better than anyone

in his eyes his menu of fire water and weariness

Yet he dressed the part of elder statesman. No more bohemian or neo –– Black

costumes.

Statesman

He came to play and he stayed in the game, establishing what we would have

when he was gone: all became poetry once more –– all his writing. Always. Beyond

prose and statement, manifesto or argument, just the facts as poetry, faith in

the word –– as in the very beginning.

So we are left with his poetry, the great body of which rest beyond what he came

to be known for, yet probably as close as truth as we can request in retrospect

and regret.

[2014, 2015]