Liam Rector 1949-2007

I was a student in the Bennington Writing Seminars for two years, a program that was started and directed by the poet Liam Rector. I learned this morning that after a long illness, Liam killed himself yesterday morning. To me, a student of his who didn't know him well, but was completely inspired by him, the news of his death is like a star going out. He was brilliant, eccentric, completely devoted to language and literature and his exuberance for life was infectious. Liam described the Bennington Writing Seminars as a vortex or radiant node. We gathered in Vermont twice a year to gain the energy and synergy found in the vortex and then we traveled home for the necessary isolation in which art is created. He was a great man and the world is a little bit less wise, less rich and less bright without him.

A quote from Liam: "I've been a student of music and film, and I think of life as that tragic and embarrassing thing that takes place between the poems, films, and the songs I inhabit."

And a poem he wrote that strikes a chord:

The Remarkable Objectivity
of Your Old Friends

by Liam Rector

We did right by your death and went out,
Right away, to a public place to drink,
To be with each other, to face it.

We called other friends - the ones
Your mother hadn't called - and told them
What you had decided, and some said

What you did was right; it was the thing
You wanted and we'd just have to live
With that, that your life had been one

Long misery and they could see why you
Had chosen that, no matter what any of us
Thought about it, and anyway, one said,

Most of us abandoned each other a long
Time ago and we'd have to face that
If we had any hope of getting it right.



To Liam: Thank you for sharing your joy of life with me. I will endeavor to Always Be Closing. You will be missed.