"Everybody dies with loose ends"
August 26, 2016 12:56 PM Subscribe
Poet Max Ritvo has died at 25. His "Poem to my Litter" appeared in the New Yorker in June. His debut collection, Four Reincarnations will be published in October by Milkweed Editions.
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posted by the marble index at 1:19 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by the marble index at 1:19 PM on August 26, 2016
Good lord, that's a beautiful and painful poem.
posted by maxsparber at 1:24 PM on August 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 1:24 PM on August 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
Oh no. I heard about Max on the radio last month but missed that he was just 25. Like Keats, or Wilfred Owen.
posted by theodolite at 1:28 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 1:28 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by foodbedgospel at 1:47 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by foodbedgospel at 1:47 PM on August 26, 2016
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posted by Hermione Granger at 1:55 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:55 PM on August 26, 2016
I wish I had known about him before today.
I found this from an interview:
"It’s like death is like a prank that your body plays on life. You know?" He laughed and continued:
Uh, it’s, it’s really funny. Um, you know, first of all the physical comedy of it. You go floppier than you've ever been and then you get rigor mortis and you become this stiff little capsule. Then your family puts you in a box but there’s no T.V. or snacks like you’re Buzz Lightyear being packaged up and then they put you in a, in a hole in the ground or they cremate you and you turn into protein powder basically. It's really just the physical comedy is amazing. And then the emotional way death is a leveller and pulls the rug out from under all of the permanences you've made. You tell yourself I'm going to find love and even if you do that, which is miraculous and almost never happens, but even if you do that and you die it just goes away. Um and it’s sort of, it makes all of life very quixotic.
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posted by dfm500 at 1:56 PM on August 26, 2016 [17 favorites]
I found this from an interview:
"It’s like death is like a prank that your body plays on life. You know?" He laughed and continued:
Uh, it’s, it’s really funny. Um, you know, first of all the physical comedy of it. You go floppier than you've ever been and then you get rigor mortis and you become this stiff little capsule. Then your family puts you in a box but there’s no T.V. or snacks like you’re Buzz Lightyear being packaged up and then they put you in a, in a hole in the ground or they cremate you and you turn into protein powder basically. It's really just the physical comedy is amazing. And then the emotional way death is a leveller and pulls the rug out from under all of the permanences you've made. You tell yourself I'm going to find love and even if you do that, which is miraculous and almost never happens, but even if you do that and you die it just goes away. Um and it’s sort of, it makes all of life very quixotic.
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posted by dfm500 at 1:56 PM on August 26, 2016 [17 favorites]
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posted by but no cigar at 2:25 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by but no cigar at 2:25 PM on August 26, 2016
Reminisces and further links at The Poetry Foundation.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:35 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:35 PM on August 26, 2016
The first enjambment in the linked poem is like a punch in the gut. What a beautiful poem. Thank you for posting this.
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:42 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:42 PM on August 26, 2016
You can find links to more of his poems on the poetry page of his website.
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:52 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:52 PM on August 26, 2016
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posted by Coda Tronca at 2:55 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by Coda Tronca at 2:55 PM on August 26, 2016
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I hope to god the Cancer Moonshot project succeeds. Ewing's sarcoma is quite a tough bastard, as cancers go. It takes little children and awkward middle schoolers and kids right out of college and young, gifted poets and newlyweds and vets fresh home from the war (my friend's older brother), and it almost got my darling cousin (who is in remission for now and please knock on wood for him if it's nearby).
posted by sallybrown at 2:57 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
I hope to god the Cancer Moonshot project succeeds. Ewing's sarcoma is quite a tough bastard, as cancers go. It takes little children and awkward middle schoolers and kids right out of college and young, gifted poets and newlyweds and vets fresh home from the war (my friend's older brother), and it almost got my darling cousin (who is in remission for now and please knock on wood for him if it's nearby).
posted by sallybrown at 2:57 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is good stuff -- sorry that I only now learned about his work. Another poet gone-too-soon is Hillary Gravendyk, who suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and underwent a double lung transplant, to no avail. A good essay on her work and its relationship to illness and pain appeared in the LARB.
Another poet whose work is frequently intertwined with his illness is Dean Young, who, happily, is still with us after a heart transplant. His Fall Higher is one of my favorite books, not least for its epigraph:
hark, dumbass
the error is not to fall,
but to fall from no height.
posted by informavore at 2:59 PM on August 26, 2016 [13 favorites]
Another poet whose work is frequently intertwined with his illness is Dean Young, who, happily, is still with us after a heart transplant. His Fall Higher is one of my favorite books, not least for its epigraph:
hark, dumbass
the error is not to fall,
but to fall from no height.
posted by informavore at 2:59 PM on August 26, 2016 [13 favorites]
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posted by cotton dress sock at 3:10 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by cotton dress sock at 3:10 PM on August 26, 2016
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posted by defenestration at 3:18 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by defenestration at 3:18 PM on August 26, 2016
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posted by oneironaut at 4:55 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by oneironaut at 4:55 PM on August 26, 2016
fuck animal testing. fuck the glorification of it more.
posted by forgettable at 5:13 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by forgettable at 5:13 PM on August 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
fuck animal testing. fuck the glorification of it more.
posted by forgettable at 5:13 PM on August 26 [+] [!]
I read that poem very differently than you
posted by clownschool at 5:38 PM on August 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by forgettable at 5:13 PM on August 26 [+] [!]
I read that poem very differently than you
posted by clownschool at 5:38 PM on August 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
I read that poem very differently than you
yes you did.
posted by forgettable at 6:02 PM on August 26, 2016
yes you did.
posted by forgettable at 6:02 PM on August 26, 2016
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and okay, sure:
. . . . . .
for Max 1, Max 2, and all the other little Maxes whose lives were spent trying to save Big Max.
But I have to be honest with you: as much as I hate the idea of animal testing, I hate the senseless useless death of young people with their whole lives ahead of them even more. If Max were my son, or brother, or father, I'd trade any number of cute cuddly mice for the chance to give them the rest of their life back.
Rest easy, Maxes. We'll try to remember you as long as we can.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 9:46 PM on August 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
and okay, sure:
. . . . . .
for Max 1, Max 2, and all the other little Maxes whose lives were spent trying to save Big Max.
But I have to be honest with you: as much as I hate the idea of animal testing, I hate the senseless useless death of young people with their whole lives ahead of them even more. If Max were my son, or brother, or father, I'd trade any number of cute cuddly mice for the chance to give them the rest of their life back.
Rest easy, Maxes. We'll try to remember you as long as we can.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 9:46 PM on August 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by chicainthecity at 11:39 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by chicainthecity at 11:39 PM on August 26, 2016
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What a beautiful young man, gone too soon.
I recommend reading his essay: From One White Guy to Another: An Open Letter About Our Privileges.
Day to day, we are the default option — we are the ones seen in commercials, we are the ones who shop-keeps are accustomed to attending to, we are the ones who teachers are accustomed to calling “confident” as opposed to “aggressive,” and “inquisitive” as opposed to “obnoxious,” and “in need of help,” as opposed to “a lost cause.”
I know this might seem trivial to you, but I assure you it isn’t. Your sense of self-esteem changes when you are an “other.” Your sense of personhood changes when the majority of authors you read are of a different race, and are of a different gender. Others have to live in our world. You can imagine what it would be like being told every day of your life, as a young girl, that your deity wasn’t your gender. That the thing meant to represent ALL of you, the sum total of your existence, has different genitals and hormones than you do, has different social and religious expectations placed upon him.
posted by daybeforetheday at 2:06 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
What a beautiful young man, gone too soon.
I recommend reading his essay: From One White Guy to Another: An Open Letter About Our Privileges.
Day to day, we are the default option — we are the ones seen in commercials, we are the ones who shop-keeps are accustomed to attending to, we are the ones who teachers are accustomed to calling “confident” as opposed to “aggressive,” and “inquisitive” as opposed to “obnoxious,” and “in need of help,” as opposed to “a lost cause.”
I know this might seem trivial to you, but I assure you it isn’t. Your sense of self-esteem changes when you are an “other.” Your sense of personhood changes when the majority of authors you read are of a different race, and are of a different gender. Others have to live in our world. You can imagine what it would be like being told every day of your life, as a young girl, that your deity wasn’t your gender. That the thing meant to represent ALL of you, the sum total of your existence, has different genitals and hormones than you do, has different social and religious expectations placed upon him.
posted by daybeforetheday at 2:06 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had not heard of Max before today. Thank you for introducing him.
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posted by Defying Gravity at 2:21 AM on August 27, 2016
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posted by Defying Gravity at 2:21 AM on August 27, 2016
Oh gods, I love Dean Young's Embryoyo and Fall Higher so much. After reading a few more of Ritvo's poems (I hadn't heard him before today either) I think I'll go take it off the shelf and you know, just generally cry (and maybe laugh) myself to sleep this evening.
posted by maryr at 6:29 PM on August 27, 2016
posted by maryr at 6:29 PM on August 27, 2016
Very strange to read this: I'm working on a website for Milkweed Editions and his book has been right on the front page of the dev site for the last three weeks.
posted by karlshea at 10:27 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by karlshea at 10:27 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
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