(P/B) THE CORAL SEA

Παρουσίαση

Several hours before Robert died I asked him how I might best serve him in his absence. We both knew he was dying, and despite all mortal agony the conversation flowed as it might at any time in our lives. We spoke of work, the source of our common devotion, which only strengthened with his departure.
Robert asked me to write a preface for Flowers, his forthcoming book. Take care of my flowers, he said. I will do it, I told him. He asked me if I would write our story. He knew it was etched in my memory, for he had often asked me to tell it to him before we went to sleep. It was a terrible vow to have to make.
After his death I wrote A Final Flower for the Bullfinch edition of his color photographs of flowers. I also wrote the poem "Reflecting Robert" for his memorial booklet entitled Mirrors. But it took a long time to find it within myself to write our story.
Instead I wrote The Coral Sea. A season in grief. All that I knew of him encrypted within a small suite of prose poems. They speak of his love for art, his patron Sam Wagstaff, and his caring for me. But most importantly his resolute will to live, that could not be contained, even in death. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Introduction
FLOWERS
The Boy Who Loved Michaelangelo
Reflecting Robert
The Final Flower
THE CORAL SEA
To the Reader
Prologue
VOYAGE
The Passenger M
The Throw
Light Play
Rank and File
Music (A Woman)
Staff of Life
After Thoughts
An Auctioned Heart
A Bed of Roses
Monkeyshines
The Herculean Moth
The Solomon Islands
The Pedestal
LITANY
Crux
Magua
Imago
Illustration Credits
Acknowledgments