Gary Snyder...

poem for/from Lew

 

Lew Welch just turned up one day
live as you and me. "Damn, Lew" I said,
"you didn't shoot yourself after all."
"Yes I did" he said
and even then I felt the tingling
down my back.
"Yes you did, too" I said -- "I can feel it now."
"Yeah" he said,"
"there's a basic fear between your
world and mind.
I don't know why.
What I came to say, was,
teach the children about the cycles.
The life cycles. All the other cycles.
That's what it's all about,
and it's all forgot."

27.IV.76

from An Appreciation of Lew Welch,
edited by S. Fox Stone Soup.