Lullabye for David Bowie
''Check ignition and may God's love go with you''
i
Night fell to earth
the day you died
dear Starman
fell
from the height of centuries—
the rainbowed inkwell of sky--
fell
from the cradle of creation
the rock of all ages
the cosmic lullaby
Night fell to earth
with a hush
then crashed and burned
then turned to white-hot ash--
leaving a trail of blue-green rain
across our weeping Universe
Struck by the lightning-bolt
of Love's inspired flame
your electric rhythm rocked time and space --
the hum of the MotherShip whirling through you
in a mysterious blue jungle of stars
Breath by breath
notes ascended hours descended
into sleep into dream
into your lyrical longing
A singing meteor you died with grace
before your light could reach us
ii
Camped at the edge of Gravity
the ground breaks under my feet--
gives sway to your magical pull--
your voice shining hypnotic
floating
over the world above the moon
God knows you left too soon
Beat by pulsing beat
I fall
under your spell into the swelling heat--
the urban span of angels’ wings
opening and closing opening and closing
to that tune on the radio
How I misssssss
the tilt of your head
the flash of your Cheshire grin
your karmic chameleon
your chinny chin chin
How you turned Rebel
how you spinned
dark to light day into night
How like you Bowie I plan to die
before my death can reach me
We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?
Each day you fall from earth
as dust to dust you leave no trace
Ground Control to Major Tom
I hear you still dear Ziggy Stardust
descending
into Heaven
into the Now and Forever
into New York City
the arms of the Mother
your son your wife
the Cradle of Light
into that final rocking
Fallen
That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I
say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars"
-- Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother
You’ve come and gone
as Heaven and Hell
fire and ice
Memory’s breath
the throw of the dice
a weeping candle
a burnt orange flame
a suicide
What was your name?
I think of you now
spinning through space
starry starry night
your ashen face
suspended
how meteors like angels
fell from your mouth
how you ended in passion
how I—going south--sink with the sun
how you break still as light
when you come
into my head
sliding in and out
of my brain
the pain
the ink of emotion--
the melting moon
on my tongue
how we cross invisible boundary lines
waxing and waning
through magical portals
the familiar the strange
the brief the immortal
the curse the blessing the lesson
the lost the found
how I lie in my bed
that black hole
above ground
I do not like you as much as love you
is what you said
Tears leave their trail as stardust
through darkness and despair
my body bears yours fingerprints
the trace of you no longer there –
your brilliant streak swirling
so far out of sight
What's love without madness--
that little sacrifice
Evening Star
It is almost a year now
since I have slept in the room
where once we lay touching
two heads on one pillow
since your fingers knelt
before mine in prayer
folding the blessings of faceless angels
into the corners of my mouth
since you fell through me
like some singing meteor
and asked me afterwards
without speaking
why
I believe in you
and other Miracles
I can no longer see
Tonight
as I resurrect you old smile
beside mine
and the wind shuts the door
and blows out the light
I kneel before our world
and stare at its pieces
Even in my daydreams
stars cross themselves at night
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko was first introduced on the BBC and to the literary world by the legendary James Meary Tambimuttu of Poetry London–-publisher of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Henry Miller and Bob Dylan, to name a few. After his death, it was his friend, the late great Kathleen Raine, who took an interest in her writing and encouraged her to publish.
A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, she is widely published. She has been a featured guest at Shakespeare & Company, on a number of occasions, as well as performed or read in other literary venues in the City of Light and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in (among others) XXI Century World Literature (in which she represents France), Jazz and Literature and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
She is the recipient of two grants: one from Poets in Need, of which Michael (100 Thousand Poets for Change) Rothenberg is a co-founder; the second—the 2018 Generosity Award bestowed on her by Kathleen Spivack and Joseph Murray for her outstanding service to international writers through SpokenWord Paris where she is Poet in Residence. She is also Writer/Poet in Residence at The Creative Process.
Her selected poems On the Way to Invisible was recently published by The Opiate Books and is now available. Her selected poems The Looking Glass is forthcoming in 2026.
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