{"id":4462,"date":"2020-04-06T06:08:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2025-08-03T17:25:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T23:25:06","slug":"death-be-not-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qualityofmercy.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/06\/death-be-not-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"Death be not proud: We’ve Been Here Before"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There were varied responses to an earlier pandemic, and I first read the following poem in a 1989 collection, Poets for Life: 76 Poets Respond to AIDS<\/em>. David Kalstone was James Merrill’s friend whose study of Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, and Robert Lowell was cut short<\/a> by his death in 1986. Caro<\/em> is an Italian endearment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were varied responses. What are our varied ways today? How to be in solidarity in a time of distancing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

From Two Poems for David Kalstone<\/em>
by James Merrill, The Inner Room<\/em>, 1988<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Investiture at Cecconi’s<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Caro, that dream (after the diagnosis)
found me losing patience outside the door of
“our” Venetian tailor. I wanted evening
clothes for the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a bulb went on. The old woman, she who
stitches dawn to dusk in his back room, opened
one suspicious inch, all the while exclaiming
over the late hour\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabrics? patterns? those the proprietor must
show by day, not now\u2014till a lightning insight
cracks her face wide: Ma! the Signore’s here to
try on his new robe!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robe? She nods me onward. The mirror triptych
summons three bent crones she diffracted into
back from no known space. They converge by magic,
arms full of moonlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up on my own arms glistening sleeves are drawn. Cool
silk in grave, white folds\u2014Oriental mourning\u2014
sheathes me, throat to ankles. I turn to face her,
uncomprehending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank your friend<\/em>, she cackles, the Professore!<\/em>
Wonderstruck I sway, like a tree of tears. You\u2014
miles away, sick, fearful\u2014have yet arranged this
heartstopping present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Header image:<\/em>
Chinese funeral, 1813<\/em>
Courtesy antiqueprints.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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