Patricia Mees Armstrong poem

Patricia Mees Armstrong is a poet who lives in the Eugene Hotel. She and my dad got to know each other at the monthly Tea and Poetry gatherings. After his death, she wrote this poem.

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A POET'S FAREWELL TO A POET

remembering Jim McPherson

For his last inevitable months, the old poet

moved in to the hotel,

ensconced in a fourth-floor warren,

while his pale blood flowed hesitantly

and his breathing balked.

He was much like an older Peter O'Toole

if you penciled in an off-white wispy pony tail

and presentably even Irish teeth,

the latter often grinning impishly.

And, oh, the wondrous words he left: poems

penned
in Parisian cafés, on Soho sidewalks, in paeans

to loves and beloveds. Even as he was dying,

he was unpacking mental trunks
of unfinished lines, legacies intended

for his pen and paper, as lost to us
as he is now.

Farewell, gentle fellow poet. May angels
gather often to listen to your brilliant works.

(c) 2008 Patricia Mees Armstrong