Fragments in Search of Him

FRAGments is a book-length poem addressing albeit obliquely the fate of a glittering young man who departed the poet's world first from college in 1960 and then later by death from a strangely prescient Vietnam in 1967. </P><P>Megraw beyond just memory haunts five hard decades. The hazel eyes the perfect teeth the preppy suits the ease the careless conversation the impossible glitter survive as simply FRAGments. </P><P><This long-poem is in Search of Him. Poetically it is a raga. In substance it is a quest for self-integration. </P><P>The search is unending. [Here. Oh. Sorry. No. Sorry. I am very sorry.] Deceased. A Friday morning phone call in 1982 and the concluding [There. JUST . . . seed] are vivid testimony to the poet's powerful but largely fruitless task of deconstruction. </P><P>On the other hand this book-length poem is a window onto the world of an artist who is facing his waning years the very gift itself (he is 67) which made life and death amenable to any kind of graceful negotiation. </P>