BruceK
Moderator Emeritus
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Clive James had died. For some time after announcing his impending departure, he was left apologizing for his continuing life.
Clive James, born Vivian Leopold James,in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, changed Vivian to Clive due to endless teasing for having a girl`s name following the emergence of actress Vivien Lee.
He worked his way through life, mostly in the UK, as an author, reviewer,poet,TV host,general raconteur,womanizer, and larrikin.
His mission in life as a writer was to "turn a phrase until it catches the light".
He once described Arnold Schwarzenegger: "He has a body like a condom full of walnuts", and English author Barbara Cartland`s eye makeup as "her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows(ravens)that had crashed into a chalk cliff".
He will be missed.
"Clive James, RIP
After he was diagnosed with emphysema and leukemia five years ago, he wrote this poem, expecting to die pretty quickly. He didn’t, which surprised him.
It’s a wonderful poem, but the good news is he was able to write quite a few more before he finished.
Japanese Maple
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:
Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?
Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:
Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colors will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone."
Clive James, born Vivian Leopold James,in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, changed Vivian to Clive due to endless teasing for having a girl`s name following the emergence of actress Vivien Lee.
He worked his way through life, mostly in the UK, as an author, reviewer,poet,TV host,general raconteur,womanizer, and larrikin.
His mission in life as a writer was to "turn a phrase until it catches the light".
He once described Arnold Schwarzenegger: "He has a body like a condom full of walnuts", and English author Barbara Cartland`s eye makeup as "her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows(ravens)that had crashed into a chalk cliff".
He will be missed.
"Clive James, RIP
After he was diagnosed with emphysema and leukemia five years ago, he wrote this poem, expecting to die pretty quickly. He didn’t, which surprised him.
It’s a wonderful poem, but the good news is he was able to write quite a few more before he finished.
Japanese Maple
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:
Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?
Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:
Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colors will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone."
