Louie Crew
Louie Crew, 74, an Alabama native, is an emeritus professor at Rutgers.
He lives in East Orange, NJ, with Ernest Clay, his husband of 36+ years.
As of today, editors have published 2,042 of Crew's poems and essays.
Crew has edited special issues of College English and Margins. He has
written four poetry volumes Sunspots (Lotus Press, Detroit, 1976)
Midnight Lessons (Samisdat, 1987), Lutibelle's Pew (Dragon Disks,
1990), and Queers! for Christ's Sake! (Dragon Disks, 2003). See http:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Crew. The University of Michigan collects
Crew’s papers.
He lives in East Orange, NJ, with Ernest Clay, his husband of 36+ years.
As of today, editors have published 2,042 of Crew's poems and essays.
Crew has edited special issues of College English and Margins. He has
written four poetry volumes Sunspots (Lotus Press, Detroit, 1976)
Midnight Lessons (Samisdat, 1987), Lutibelle's Pew (Dragon Disks,
1990), and Queers! for Christ's Sake! (Dragon Disks, 2003). See http:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Crew. The University of Michigan collects
Crew’s papers.
Louie Crew's Poetry
Eschatology
My church grew rich on tithes
and invested in a bookstore
in a neighborhood that became
too sleazy for Bible buyers,
so my church doubled its capital
by selling the property
to Allied Cinema, Inc.,
which placed 30 stalls
under a blue light,
fitted each with a double sofa,
a screen, a projector,
and a slot for quarters.
Troops came from the highways and hedges
miles around
there to discover in pairs
simple affection,
which my church never considered
a profitable investment.
_________________________________________________________________
Euthanatopsis
So live that when your summons comes
to join that innumerable caravan
that moves through silent corridors towards death
you go not kept alive by extraordinary greed,
nor groveling through mindlessness as a vegetable,
but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust
approach your grave as one who takes a pill
or gathers about her all her family and friends
at a time certain to say goodbye,
and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Note: This is William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopis" emended.
_________________________________________________________________
Eschatology
My church grew rich on tithes
and invested in a bookstore
in a neighborhood that became
too sleazy for Bible buyers,
so my church doubled its capital
by selling the property
to Allied Cinema, Inc.,
which placed 30 stalls
under a blue light,
fitted each with a double sofa,
a screen, a projector,
and a slot for quarters.
Troops came from the highways and hedges
miles around
there to discover in pairs
simple affection,
which my church never considered
a profitable investment.
_________________________________________________________________
Euthanatopsis
So live that when your summons comes
to join that innumerable caravan
that moves through silent corridors towards death
you go not kept alive by extraordinary greed,
nor groveling through mindlessness as a vegetable,
but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust
approach your grave as one who takes a pill
or gathers about her all her family and friends
at a time certain to say goodbye,
and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Note: This is William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopis" emended.
_________________________________________________________________
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