R.I.P Clive James

[rudds1 102]

Aussie entertainer Clive James has died aged 80 

[Halibut 12]

He was a great writer - this is a poem he wrote a few years ago when he knew he was dying.

 

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, 2014

 

 

[francypants 441]

I used to love his wry humour on his show  'Clive James on TV '

 

R.I.P.

[feargal 21]

1 hour ago, Halibut said:

He was a great writer - this is a poem he wrote a few years ago when he knew he was dying.

 

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, 2014

 

 

It's a beautiful poem Halibut.  His writing really was fantastic.  

[PRESLEY 1,228]

Great Post.  The BEST Ive ever read on Sheffied Forum.   THANKYOU. 

[alchresearch 214]

His Sunday night show was required viewing in my house.  Always great to end with clips from the Japanese game show "Endurance".

 

I'd strongly recommend reading his two autobiographies of life as a child is Oz, before coming here. 

[Halibut 12]

22 minutes ago, alchresearch said:

I'd strongly recommend reading his two autobiographies of life as a child is Oz, before coming here. 

I'll second that - I still remember the bit where he cut his knob jumping over a barbed wire fence!

[feargal 21]

He was a wonderful writer, one of those rare ones who manages to include nods to the classics, poetry or arts references you may not have heard of, but without making the reader feel like a Billy-thicko.