Barber - I Never Thought That Youth Would Go

Heres a virtual movie of the very talented American poetess and artist Gene Derwood (1909 -1954) reading "Elegy on Gordon Barber" She tragically died young from stomach cancer at the age of 44 leaving behind a collection of approximately 40 poems several of which were outstanding. Her style has been compared to that of the WW1;poet Wilfred owen,,Sylvia Plath also comes to mind. She was recorded reading this and a selection of some of her best poems. by the Library of Congress. Gene Derwood (1909--1954) was an American poet, painter and wife of the poet and anthologist Oscar Williams. Theres not much about Gene Derwood around the internet,but here's an a paste of a brief web page about Gordon Barber the subject of this poem I am Peter Gordon Donald, born Stephen James Roberts. I am named after Gordon Barber, my Father's close friend who drowned at my Grandmother's Camp, Panther Cove, on Upper Saranac Lake, at the age of 18. Here is a famous poem I found today about Gordon and what happened. My Father still refuses to speak about the tragedy. As a boy this is how I came to be a reporter, by reconstructing the story through news accounts and speaking with family members. Obviously this is a big part of my book Low Expectations. Elegy on Gordon Barber, a poem by Gene Derwood Elegy On Gordon Barber, Lamentably Drowned in his Eighteenth Year When in the mirror of a permanent tear Over the iris of your mother's eye I beheld the dark tremor of your face, austere With space of death, spun too benign for youth, Icicle of the past to pierce her living sigh -- I saw you wish the last kiss of mother's mouth, Who took the salted waters rather in the suck Of seas, sighing yourself to fill and drench With water the plum-rich glory of your breast Where beat the heart escaping from war's luck. Gordon, I mourn your wrist, your running foot, Your curious brows, your thigh, your unborn daughters, Yet mourn more deep the drought-caught war dry boy Who goes, a killer, to join you in your sleep And envy you what made you blench Taking your purple back to drought-less waters. What choke of terror filled you in the wet What fierce surprise caught you when play turned fate And all the rains you loved became your net, Formlessly yielding, yet stronger than your breath? Then did you dream of mother or hopes hatched When the cold cramp held you from nape to foot And time dissolved, promise dissolved, in Death? Did you cry 'cruel' to all the hands that stretched Not near, but played afar, when you sank down Your sponge of lungs hurt to the quick Till you had left the quick to join the dead, Whom now, your mother mourns grief-sick. You were too young to drown. Never will you take bride to happy bed, Who lay awash in water yet no laving Needed, so pure so young for sudden leaving. Gone, gone is Gordon, tall and brilliant lad Whose mind was science. Now hollow his skull A noble sculpture, is but sunken bone, His cells from water come by water laid Grave-deep, to water gone. Lost, lost the hope he had Washed to a cipher his splendour and his skill. But Gordon's gone, it's other boys who live afraid. Two years, and lads have grown to hold a gun. In dust must splendid lads go down and choke, Red dry their hands and dry their one day's sun From which they earthward fall to fiery tomb Bomb-weighted, from bloodying children's hair. Never a boy but takes as cross Cain's crime And goes to death by making death, to pass Death's gate distorted with the dried brown grime -- Better the watery death than death by air Or death by sand Where fall hard fish of fear Loud in unwetted dust. Spun on a lucky wave, O early boy! Now ocean's fish you are As heretofore. Perhaps you had sweet mercy's tenderness To win so soon largesse of choice That you, by grace, went gayly to the wave And all our mourning should be to rejoice. Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2012

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Marion Barber Failed Backflip Celebration after scoring touchdown _2011

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Miles Hilton-Barber - Blind Explorer and Inspirational Speaker

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Gene Derwood "Elegy on Gordon Barber" Poem animation

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The Three I Ams English Christian Sermon by Nathan Barber