"Certain words now in our knowledge we will not use again, and we will never forget them.... they are, trembling already for the day of witness. They will be buried with us, and rise with the rest."
A number of people are using his poem, "For the Anniversary of My Death," which sounds like someone will speak to us wisdom from the grave, but it's a little tricky like Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." It's actually a living man who speaks:
"Every year without knowing it I have passed the day"
"I have passed" indicates he's alive (also it's a clue, too, that the poet was alive when writing the poem). The phrase "without knowing" is key. The lack of knowledge but the presence and possibility of death seem to hang over him. It is both definite and mysterious. He later alludes to life as a "strange garment."
The next five lines discuss death, but the last seven address his life right now--not just the love of a woman, or the problems of the world--but this very moment, staring into nature, observing its beauties. The final line is almost Biblical, a warning about what one serves in life, knowingly or unknowingly.
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Poetry reading is up, according to this USA Today article. (The title claims fiction reading is down, but later quotes that the fall is statistically insignificant.
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In a similar vein--at least, the logical next step--here's an answer to the question about poetry careers which, given that it is a poem, is no answer at all:
When we were younger, guidance counselors steered us
toward respectable occupations: doctor, lawyer,
pharmacist, dentist. Not once did they say exorcist,
snake milker or racecar helmet tester....
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I'm not sure to what extent Theodore Sturgeon could be a called a poet, but he does use poetic techniques, and this interviewer had that in mind.
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