Benn Posset memorial site

Timothy Leary remembers Benn Posset

Poem by Eddie Woods to honor Benn Posset of SOYO Amsterdam + 26-9-'94

SO-SO

for Soyo Benn

From today for me
the sun rises in the West,
where you made poetry happen
when most urgently awaited,
and sets in the East,
place that gave birth
to your visions of tribal gatherings,
of poets as messengers,
and where I hear you wanted
half your ashes scattered.
The words "How you been?"
I shan't hear again
without thinking of you,
but thank God our differences were reconciled
even as those who never knew better
continued to wish that we were still quarreling.
In the end it all came right
was always coming right, in fact.
We wheeled & dealed,
we talked & didn't talk,
we tried at times to take each other
for a certain kind of ride.
But the real stakes were much bigger
and you for sure
drove more than a few of them nicely home,
I wore white at your wedding
Wear black at your funeral
Yet whether in black, white
or shades & colors somewhere in between,
I hope & pray
that very soon
you will once more be the guy
opening the back door
to poets in whatever worlds
you next encounter,
So long, Soyo,
scarred samurai of poetry's politics.
So-So just like that.

Amsterdam, 26-9-94

120195