FOR MARLOWE (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MAX CROW REEVES OF HIS SON AND HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS)
When do the young get to stand with a master?
United by name, theme and time place,
Marlowe Chan-Reeves and Heathcote.
In his oxford kitchen before
The new and tragically last separation
That has seen the sage leaving
On the Ferryman’s salted boat.
Two ages in one, framing and framed
By a father; each passing on to their children
Visual and word messages.
Now there is a visceral sense to the old man’s
Smile,and boy’s secret, as if each
Now suspected the claiming
Of entirely new energies. One to the real
And now the lost other to aether;
To places that form beyond weather
Or are by design, shaped by it.
Heathcote celebrated Marlowe in Killing Kit,
That first writer, who created the classics,
As well as the cult of Shakespeare,
And now Max’s son, whatever he does
Shadows poems that have cascaded
From Williams well into Art’s Stratosphere.
And so a new play begins in which the young
And the masters meet for a moment
And help to frame all that was.
All that is has now changed.
All we knew. All we wanted. A lucky young boy
In a kitchen, there next to greatness
In a photograph his Dad made.
David Erdos 10/8/17
Photo MAX CROW REEVES