A farewell to Clive James I stumbled across Clive James 'Japanese Maple' published in the New Yorker September fifteenth. He has always had my deepest respect for his wit and his words, and here is his moving farewell. May he see 'the final flood of colours' Clive James http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-17/terminally-ill-clive-james-writes-heartfelt-farewell-poem/5750908 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_James Japanese Maple Your death, near now, is of an easy sort. So slow a fading out brings no real pain. Breath growing short Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain Of energy, but thought and sight remain: Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls On that small tree And saturates your brick back garden walls, So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls? Ever more lavish as the dusk descends This glistening illuminates the air. It never ends. Whenever the rain comes it will be there, Beyond my time, but now I take my share. My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new. Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame. What I must do Is live to see that. That will end the game For me, though life continues all the same: Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes, A final flood of colors will live on As my mind dies, Burned by my vision of a world that shone So brightly at the last, and then was gone.