Closer Poem by Richard Whiting

(For Ian Curtis)

for now, the high bidder
I sit, looking out under grey skies
wondering if I leant my arms
across your old table
would words flood
my mind
as inspiration takes hold? (1)

Debbie cradles Natalie,
in the Barton Street kitchen
on a Macclesfield morning (2)
where your dream
will unfold, genius
take flight, a nightmare
bare its ugly fruit (3)

figuratively at least
I own your old table,
for a couple of hours;
what songs did you write there?
what marks from your pen
scored its perfect surface
with permanence? (4)

genius I said, genius
You have been outbid,
don’t let it get away..
but you got away
years ago,
too great the distance
to offer a touch (5)

and here’s your music
making rainbows out of the sun (6)
deep voice from darker places
a dead soul speaking (7)
an atmosphere changing (8)
this is the best of you (9)
taking us closer (10)
but not too near

no ephemera needed;
the essence
of your fatal truth
is here;

All we have to do
is press play
and then

pause



Notes

In November 2013, a kitchen table, once the property of Ian Curtis, lead singer with Joy Division, sold on E-Bay for £8,400. Briefly, I was the high bidder.

http: //www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ian-Curtis-the-Singer-of-Joy-Division-a-Unique-Personal-Item-His-Kitchen-Table-/190959624297? nma=true&si=zCNJUdjMIAd%252F4A567hl5qNyd99c%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557


1.Corruption from the Joy Division song Love will Tear Us Apart, “and there’s a taste in my mouth/ as desperation takes hold”
2. (77) Barton Street, Macclesfield. Where Ian Curtis and his wife Deborah lived with their baby daughter Natalie.
3. Curtis hung himself in the kitchen there, on May 18th 1980
4. Corruption from so this is permanent. Song lyric from Twenty-Four Hours by Joy Division.
5. Corruption of Touching From A Distance, a lyric from Transmission by Joy Division and the title of Deborah Curtis’ memoir of her life with Ian. The films Control and more especially 24 Hour Party People were based on this book.
6. i.e. on Compact Disc
7. Dead Souls. Song by Joy Division
8. Atmosphere. Song by Joy Division
9. i.e. The Best of Joy Division c.d.
10. Closer. Second and final album by Joy Division, completed shortly before Ian Curtis’ death.