Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

Raymond Carver



This is the poem I’ve been afraid to share with my friends who are struggling with serious illness for fear they’ll think I’ve got my mallet and chisel out ready to inscribe their tomb. ‘Cause you know, this poem does have an all said and done thing going for it. But I couldn’t not share it because it makes me so happy. It fills me with peace.

It’s the last poem in Ray Carver’s last book, A New Path to the Waterfall.