It's just poetry, it won't bite

For Robin Williams


08.01.19 Posted in today's words by

Thomas Locicero’s most recent poem to appear here was “The Death Song of Us” (July 2019)

For Robin Williams
By Thomas Locicero

It is a challenging balance,
To be or to not be, and the
Soul has something to say in this
Matter; bodiless, though it is,
Its urging is to protect the
Mind, and the spirit, then, offers
Its take on the subject, namely
That it is not yet ready for
Eviction. To some, existence
Is a burden, or, perhaps, it
Is a false dawn, an aurora
With no accurate sense of time,
Displaced by a cosmic error,
A hiccup in the universe.
But the Earth depends on logic.
Everything must have a reason.

Yours was to make the entire
World fill with laughter. Occupied
With images of destruction,
Of man’s inhumanity to
Man, none of it makes sense to us.
And, so, we turn to you, rely
On you, and we hope we are not
A burden and you assure us
You would not be here but for us.
Now only we remain. I heard
You referred to as a sad clown
And I was offended for you.
You were neither sad nor a clown.
You were gentle and delicate,
Suffering in anonymity,
And you must have felt like a child.

Even the decision you made
Was not your own. How can I know
This for sure without knowing you?
Prey is not blamed for predation.
Your mind depredated your soul.
A life filled of froth and glitter,
Of a hundred million cameras
Capturing the next oddity.
Willingly or unwillingly,
You obliged us and calmed our fears,
You helped us ignore the shadows
And closed our eyes in mild sleep;
You made the news more bearable.
And then the news was about you,
And your dying was more crushing
Because you became one of us.



2 Responses to “For Robin Williams”

  1. billgncs says:

    beautifully said.

  2. Dianne Deloren says:

    Thank you for remembering Robin Williams! And for caring enough to ponder in poetry what his suicide meant, to you and to all of us who loved him.

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