Words before we go

Garrison Keillor has compiled three volumes of poetry that I really treasure, but I think my favorite book of poetry is a small volume by contemporary poet Nathan Brown, containing poems he wrote based on the reported last words of mostly well-known people such as Elvis Presley’s, “I’m going into the bathroom to read.” Some of the last words he quotes are witty, some sad, some defiant, some ironic, and some poignant.

I imagine it’s rather hard to be witty while lying on one’s deathbed, but Voltaire reportedly said, “This is no time to make new enemies.” Touche!

It doesn’t get much sadder (or braver) than Joan of Arc’s last utterance, “Hold the cross high so I can see it through the flames.”

Giles Gorey, as he was being pressed to death with rocks for supposedly being a witch in Salem, Mass., defiantly shouted, “More weight” as the real witches piled on more stones.

Ironically, Union Major-General John Sedgwick declared seconds before being felled by a rebel sharpshooter, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”

Brown’s quote from Davy Crockett, “… be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” was most likely not his last words before dying at the Alamo, just his best remembered. Brown notes in his commentary poem that few of us, if any, have declared, “I am sure I am wrong” before going ahead.

The most poignant quote for me came from Stonewall Jackson as he lay dying from a wound sustained from friendly fire: “Let us cross over the river and sit under the shade of the trees.” Perhaps the river he envisioned was the River Jordan and the trees snowy dogwoods.

The title of Brown’s little volume is “To Sing Hallucinated.” I hope when I get my cue I can exit, singing.

JOHN McPHERSON

Searcy