Tumbling toward the End
Pulpcutters’ Nativity / Two For Christmas
December 31, 2015Different Planet
December 31, 2016
TUMBLING TOWARD THE END
D avid Budbill died in September 2016, before the publication of his eighth book of poetry. Tumbling toward the End is a candid assessment of imminent mortality haunted by the timbre of great physical pain. And yet Budbill’s poems remain suffused with light and love.
While mournful about the body’s debilitation and inevidable departure from Judevine Mountain, the home Budbill made in rural Vermont for over forty years, these poems sing of the delights of a modest, honorable, mindful life.
(Copper Canyon Press, 2017)
Anguish and Beauty
At 71, suddenly, I realize time
is running out.
Aging and loss intensify
the anguish and the beauty
of this life.
Every moment becomes
more real, more important,
more valuable.
"This last book by poet, playwright, fiction writer, musician, David Budbill has all the deserved resonance of 'last words.' One senses here the author’s deep awareness of aging and death, as well as living fully. Stricken with a rare disease that took him last year, Budbill shares his sense of struggle for acceptance, yet, like all of us, he struggles between life’s refreshing beauty and his own bitter-sweet farewell. Tumbling Toward the End becomes a last fine blessing upon us. Don't miss it."
- Larry Smith, New York Journal of Books