{"id":19552,"date":"2016-01-12T18:22:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=19552"},"modified":"2016-01-15T11:35:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T16:35:51","slug":"the-day-david-bowie-died-a-poet-wondered-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2016\/01\/the-day-david-bowie-died-a-poet-wondered-why.html","title":{"rendered":"The Day David Bowie Died, a Poet Wondered Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘What Are People Doing Fucking Dying?’<\/font>
\n

<\/a>

David Bowie, Hippie Wizard
[Photo: by Gabi Pape]<\/font><\/p><\/div>What are people doing fucking dying?
\nHaven\u2019t they got better things to do?
\nNo sooner than you\u2019re on someone\u2019s wavelength
\nThen suddenly they\u2019re whisked away from you.<\/p>\n

I saw Bowie at the first Glastonbury in 1971<\/a>.*<\/strong>
\nHe was performing at five in the morning.
\nWith golden locks he was dressed as a hippie wizard
\nAs he heralded the new day that was dawning.<\/p>\n

The sun rose behind the Tor as he was singing.
\nA Druid hammered in a golden stake,
\nMuttering spells to try and prevent it from raining
\nAnd somehow their magic seemed to work.<\/p>\n

Then, in no time at all, Bowie\u2019s dressed as a corpse
\nSinging, \u2018Look up here, I\u2019m in heaven.\u2019
\nHis eyes are buttons and he\u2019s wearing a shroud …
\nIs it his disguise for a meeting with the divine?<\/p>\n

Born of Anthony Newley crossed with Lindsay Kemp,
\nThis cockney rebel could shape-shift and morph.
\nBowie would neatly side-step every categorization \u2013
\nAn artful dodger knowing enough to cheat death.<\/p>\n

What are people doing fucking dying?
\nHaven\u2019t they got better things to do?
\nNo sooner than you\u2019re on someone\u2019s wavelength
\nThen suddenly they\u2019re whisked away from you\u2026<\/p>\n

Someone who seemed to stop it from raining
\nOn the parades of the conflicted and insecure;
\nSomeone who\u2019d free their identities and give those
\nWho clapped eyes on him permission to flower.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d experiment with his fluctuating selfhood
\nIn stadium-sized labs;
\nNow he has just his own immortality to savour
\nIn an exquisite time-lapse \u2013<\/p>\n

As he sings his Memory of a Free Festival<\/em>
\nInto the 2020\u2019s and the 3020\u2019s:
\n\u201cThe sun machine is coming down
\n\u201cAnd we\u2019re going to have a party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heathcote Williams<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

*There was a small pop-cum-jazz event beforehand<\/a> which nearly bankrupted Michael Eavis, the producer, because he had to give in to Marc Bolan’s demand of \u00a3600 up front before Bolan would get out of his Rolls Royce to play.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/a>

David Bowie [Illustration \u00a9 by Elena Caldera]<\/p><\/div>\n