Tom Raworth: July 19, 1938 - February 8, 2017
Footnote
The meaning of the song
changes when the singer dies,
we’re abandoned by the voice
but the sound stays on the air
In contrast to the hymns
of dead and dying politicians,
whose swallowed words
cannot change, only rot.
First Lee stepped off into the sea
then Tom walked down the hill,
syntax jangling in his rucksack
Lèvre de Poche weighing nothing.
Leaving for silence on an ordinary day,
It’s been a good run, Tom said;
set the music around that voice,
transpose our gone companions.
The meaning of the song
changes when the singer dies,
we’re abandoned by the voice
but the sound stays on the air
In contrast to the hymns
of dead and dying politicians,
whose swallowed words
cannot change, only rot.
First Lee stepped off into the sea
then Tom walked down the hill,
syntax jangling in his rucksack
Lèvre de Poche weighing nothing.
Leaving for silence on an ordinary day,
It’s been a good run, Tom said;
set the music around that voice,
transpose our gone companions.
Kelvin Corcoran