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In memoriam for Dave King
‘I am writing a novel
in which no one speaks . . .
every one of my characters
moves like a shadow . . .
As of now, chapters ten,
and to a lesser extent,
maybe, eleven,
seem quite unpenable.’
written by Dave King, excerpts
from WAR AND PEACEfulness
I. Alasdair MacIntyre and Isaiah Berlin will engage in a civilized debate of moral philosophy and value pluralism in the divinely lit library of the hereafter
while it seems improbable
that the two will ever
arrive at the Answer,
hidden within the firestick,
their agreeable natures
ensure a kind exchange
and mutual respect
(as ours did)
II. Postmodern experimentalism encounters a fine intellect and a dashing wit
not only did he meet the bar
he vaulted it rather spryly
III. Anything can happen
unfortunately, it often does
cancerously and suddenly
IV. Stendal, Joyce, Hypatia, Riker, and Woolf toast his life by writing an eternity of allusions
words are like magic,
scintilla, igniting the soul’s spark
Plato’s divine spark longing
to unite with ever more
transcendent forms of beauty
Hypatia approaches the door
only those who’ve transitioned
may enter, opening a gateway,
releasing the fiery cries of seraphs
(I will meet you in the liminal
threshold between your faith
and my fractured metaphysics)
her radical eye encounters his pneuma
perhaps a whisper of which
will live a little here in the poem
as an act of remembrance
V. The consummate performance artist mourns the poet
you walked alongside us
desiring a dream of arctic skies
and ice floes captured in verse
now silk enrobed traces of your artistry
float by, a music, ever passing
as your gentle voice is lost to the wind
