Poem to be Read in the Dark

(in memoriam S.B.B.)

Enough.
That is how it is.

Still,
but for the clouds
and my breath.

Waiting
for the footfalls.

Waiting
for the angels of darkness.

Bright at last –
at the end.


23 July 1989
 
  

This poem was assembled from bits and bobs from Beckett’s writings: ‘Enough’, a short story; How It Is, a novella; Stirrings Still, his final prose piece; ...but the clouds..., a television play; Breath, dramaticule; Waiting for Godot, play; Footfalls, play; “Bright at last”, the first three words of Fizzle 7, ‘Still’; The End, novella.

I’m not sure about the angels of darkness though. He mentions “grey angels” in Dream of Fair to Middling Women but the only reference to “angels of darkness” I can find is the title of a book by Colin Duckworth, Angels of Darkness: Dramatic Effect in Samuel Beckett with special reference to Eugène Ionesco but Google Books won’t let me look inside to see where he’s quoting from and Google itself hasn’t been much help either.