Death Of Mr Barry Philip Van-Asten. B.A.1969-2009. Poem by Barry Van Asten

A biblical wind opened out
A trackway from the heart that passes
Through a mind mapped by science and doubt -
His life was all acids and gases,

And Dante and Chaucer and churches
And old books and nettles and thunder
And teapots and ghosts and strange forces:
Froebel fellow... laird something or other...

And numbers and hills and dark places
And rivers and Shakespeare and stone
And legs and eyelashes and faces
And death and bird-song and bone...

A man of great thought there's no doubt -
At sunset he peacocked with ease;
A mind switched by solids and salt;
A poet and painter of dreams.

But bored at the prospect of life -
He absorbed knowledge forbidden by time:
His love was a cascade of failed rites
Crucified in their prime.

And with a handful of secrets and songs,
Torment was damned to his knees;
He thumbed for the meaning of love
As he unstitched his heart at the seams.