For those who knew him, as well as those that should have,

 
Some days ago now, my brother-in-law, Clive, known to me over 43 years as “The Cliverian” moved on following a massive, almost superhuman struggle with an illness so horrible it would have seemed ‘over the top’ in a five star horror movie. Imagine attempting to bath an enraged, wild tabby cat and you will start to get the impression of that struggle. And Clive was a much bigger cat.
 
A massive fight to resist transmogrifying into some alternate function in this multiverse of which we are but a simple spark: rather than a thing apart. Or not.
 
Perhaps he was needed elsewhere and so his time here eventually ran out – In some transcendent space he grows apace and runs still… his resolution confirmed.
 
Having said that and acknowledging that he was a long time drinking buddy, albeit i was always his sister’s husband; and equally albeit that he was Premier league to my 3rd division, as a consumer of delicious beverages, we did have a most odd, for me, memorable though: closing experience together. Well: that is one way of describing it.
 

For those who knew Clive Ambler-Smith, i am placing the following piece of poetry, on which worked together, in a way i don’t understand … i simply present it
 
Of course that is for those only, that wish to know.
For the rest R.I.P The Cliverian
 
With love to Diane, Jen, Lara, Jax, Ryan the Grandees and all those who will miss the man I described below as a “ falling tree”

Conversation with a falling tree

 
“Mmm Coke hey.”
He took a sip of coke.
“That was good,” he said.
 
——- O ——-
 
A tree has fallen in the forest
Who has heard it crash?
 
——- O ——-
 
There is invariably at such moments
As this the
Implicit idea that the world should stop,
That people should cry out … NO!
Stop. Replay,
Do not delete; do not pass go.
 
——- O ——–
 
It was that trending to icy time
Now
When
We
WerebundeledupagaisttheWinterSolsticeComing
That we said our last farewells
To one who travelled
With us
On this
Shared experience
Of life.
 
Then it was I had
A wobbly at my workplace
And had to leave
The room
In a shuddering spurting
Web
Of
Tears
Thatinexplicablyleaptuponme; tearing
At that pain I felt
For Churley and all
Those
Too
Many
Others…
 
Gone
But for
Memory… elusive … shaking
At the fragile edges
Of recollection.
 
I saw you
Then –
How you swept me from a raging
Torrent
While holding to a tree
Making a tree
Of me.
And how you lifted
Obstacles
With scant regard
For
Possibility…
 
Gone Now.
 
Then your mother came
It seemed
And spoke to me
In that same
Fragmented instant
Querulous
Haggard
Imploring:
Head cocked up at ’45.
 
“He helped you then
You help him now”
 
So I spoke with him
On that home ride
Through
All the fog of
Multitasking
Memory and gridlock
Autonomically spoke of calmness and slip
Pingdownagentleslopethroughthe
Darkness tunneled out
Of time
Until he saw the sign that would either
Push him to a
U Turn
Or pass him through:
When one is ready
To go steady
 
Then to Jay Jays where they had
No Bones
And afterwards to Spar where,
Strangely he relaxed
His mood
Smiled that self-
Deprecating
Smile he always used
To reluctantly
Concede
A point.
 
Then later he went to scout
The place where I had been
And I felt the power
Pour through me
As an integral part
Burned out
 
In lassitude I fell down
A funnel into
Sleep
And as I slipped off
The SMS arrived to
Say that he
Was
Gone.
!NiK[15]

 
Further then
 
I am,
In Clint Eastwood’s
Ever-popular script: “A
Legend
In my own
Mind”:
As are we all
I suspect;
And so it is with
Amazement
That my mind is
Invaded
By
Random
Apostrophes of
Some
Other
Entity coming
To me in
A series
Of
Sequiturs.
 
So… What happened today
Was one of the
Strangest
Experiences,
Amongst some,
In my life.
 
Walking to a place I
Knew
I saw I man I
Knew
Walking with earnest
Dedication to the
Ground
Beneath
His feet
And readied to call out to him
With an
Ubuntu inspired greet’:
“Good morning glorious
Happy leader”
I was about to say
And then abruptly
‘Out of left field’
I saw YOU
Throughthedapplingsofanearly
Cool crisp morning:
Rifle under arm
Walking after fallings.
And as my mouth parted to start
To speak
You were in… rampaged instead
At me
“I helped you then you help me now
NO KNOW NOW”
 
And help abruptly relieved
In turn
For me: I
Went off to
Walk with him
Through some old Mopani
Thickets
Until he felt himself
Release.
 
So Somehow in a manner
Quite inexplicable
 
I encountered
What I can best call
A chain of
Thought: Imperative, resolute
And demanding:
Helped in some
Unimaginable way
A man I knew
Take a journey to
Where the light went through.
 
Did I do that?
Was that what
Happened
Or did I dream
Walking?
 
——– O ——–
 
A report was later
Lodged on Facebook,
So must have veracity, that
An unprecedented herd
Of more
Than one hundred elephants
Had gathered
Unusually at a sanctified
Waterhole in
Botswana.
 
And in unison trumpeted
A song
To one of their
Number that had
Gone with Him.
While over here Kenny
Rogers came of a sudden on Mix FM to
Sing about a gambler knowing when to hold
And knowing when to fold…
And later still came Joni
Mitchell out of No Place singing
“You don’t know what
You’ve got
‘Til it’s gone”.
 
Sister She, said to me
Later at the ceremony
“Mmm Coke!” He said
And took a paltry sip: No bread.
“That was good.” He said.
One eye opening to
Watch the Doc’ come
Through the door … ‘Hit the floor’!
He winked at him: sighed
And left.
!NiK[May 21st 2015]
 

RIP: Cliverion