Syd Barrett's Death

Well, now it's official. Syd has passed away. I'm afraid his life seemed something like a death-in-life for the last 25 years. I had hoped he'd live to a fine old age, but it wasn't to be. I'm afraid that most of his adult life was a terrible falling off from the brilliance of his early years. As the darkness closed in (apparently from complications connected with diabetes), one couldn't imagine Syd struggling too hard against the comforting black night.

I repost my recent Syd poem as a tribute to a gentle soul with a special gift.

Ave Syd

Was incipient madness always there?

Or was the startling suddenness of fame

Too much for one of temperament so rare

And fine?I guess it’s difficult to blame

Any of the band too much. The crazy eyes

Were always fixed upon them in disguise.

Those early videos of black and white

Presaged an odd rejection of the real;

As if some stricken soulhad taken fright

And hidden in a lunatic’s surreal

World…Ave Syd! I think you were relieved

When finally you had to leave the field.