Gerald Barrax (1933-2019)
In memoriam
News
SUMMARY: Joanne V. Gabbin reflects on the life, work and death of the poet, who was struck and killed by a vehicle on Dec. 7, 2019, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
When a poet dies,
The world loses a stanza.
A Haiku, of sorts.
We come into the world a simile and leave as a metaphor.
—Jessea Nayo Gabbin
When I heard the news of the tragic death of Gerald Barrax, I remembered the video clip from the 1994 Furious Flower Conference in which he read “Sunday, 24 May 1992, 10:30am.” Some of us were in tears. The solemnity of his deep river voice continues to resonate with me his meaning: the loneliness of death and lingering regret.
Barax's death does not erase the fullness of the life he lived as devoted teacher, poet and editor of Obsidian and poetry editor of Callaloo. He was author of five books of poetry. He was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2009, taught many years at North Carolina Central University and North Carolina State University, and received numerous awards including the Ford Foundation Fellowship and the Raleigh Medal of the Arts. He would also want anyone writing about him to say that he was a devoted family man. His love of family and the precious human connections that we value in community were often the subjects of his poems.
