December 13, 1993
John Gordon Boyd
died on the birthday
of three remarkable, and remarkably different, writers:
Heinrich Heine, Kenneth Patchen, Ross McDonald
John, too, was just as remarkable, blessed with an inherent “graciousness”
and with extraordinary eyes & ears…
I think of two texts
on the grievous occasion of his death:
“Religion does not help me.
The faith that others give to what is unseen,
I give to what I can touch, and look at.
My Gods dwell in temples
made with hands.”
— Oscar Wilde, in De Profundis
and two lines in Rainier Maria Rilke,
John’ s favorite poet,
that say it all…
Was tun Sie, Gott,
Wenn ich bin stürbe?
“What will you do,
God, when I am dead?”