May 21, 1926 - March 30, 2005

American poet Robert Creeley passed away this morning at 6:15 am in
Odessa, Texas, where he was fulfilling a Residency at the Lannan
Foundation. (Mr Creeley was a recipient of the Lannan Foundation
Lifetime Achievement Award.) His wife of twenty-eight years,
Penelope, and son Will and daughter Hannah were at his side. The
cause of death was complications from respiratory disease. Mr.
Creeley was seventy-eight years old.


A Song

I had wanted a quiet testament
and I had wanted, among other things,
a song.
That was to be
of a like monotony.
(A grace
Simply. Very very quiet.
A murmur of some lost
thrush, though I have never seen one.

Which was you then. Sitting
and so, at peace, so very much now this same quiet.

A song.

And of you the sign now, surely, of a gross
perpetuity
(which is not reluctant, or if it is,
it is no longer important.

A song.

Which one sings, if he sings it,
with care.

--Robert Creeley