From Jim Fisher...

For those of us who could not make it to David's funeral, I thank Mary Marwitz, Laura Milner, and Eric Nelson for their loving words. I thank Georgia Southern University and the Department of Writing and Linguistics for creating this forum. By reading these messages, I feel that I was there with you and that I got to know David even better. Some wise man once said you can count your really good friends on one hand. This may be true for most people, but not for David Starnes. It was my privilege to have edited his chapbook of poetry, "Original Skin," published here in Port Angeles, Washington. The final poem he chose for the book was this:

Climbing Mount Angeles Again
Thirty Years Later

With half the world squared off against
the other half, we summoned the old faith
that the earth remains quite round, a circus,
yes, always about to heave apart,
to burst into flames, but still a circle,
still at 360 sweet degrees.
We required a higher point of view.
First the gradual zigzag, and in those
initial steps of our ascent I left
behind the store I minded of desire.
I wished for nothing more to wish for
than my body still above ground, with my path
so plainly marked, how could my eyes have strayed
from all the turning, all the roundness at the top?

David has made his final climb. I cherish the words and poems he left behind and hope to hold a collection of his recent work to guide me on my own "zigzag ascent."



Posted by Jim Fisher to Words for David Starnes at May 23, 2007 10:43 AM