A sad tale …

… From recovery to relapse, how divine intervention failed the troubled genius of John Berryman | National Post. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)



God may well have been with during the fall. Some years ago, a friend and I drove by the spot where he jumped. Here is one of his last poems:

He Resigns

                   Age, and the deaths, and the ghosts.

                        Her having gone away

                        in spirit from me. Hosts

                        of regrets come and find me empty.

                        I don’t feel this will change.

                        I don’t want anything

                        or person, familiar or strange.

                        I don’t think I will sing

                        anymore just now,

                        or ever. I must start

                        to sit with a blind brow

                        above an empty heart.