the question of what's left

"But in writing the story of his death Raymond Carver also wrote the story of his love. There is a poem about getting married, Tess [Gallagher] and Ray's Reno wedding, a wedding in that town of divorcees and gamblers,

as if we'd found an answer to
that question of what's left
when there's no more hope

"There is a poem which sets love explicitly against death:

Saying it then, against
what comes: wife, while I can, while my breath, each hurried petal

can still find her

"And there are poems of farewell, of which at least one, 'No Need', is a great poem, of a perfection that makes me unwilling to quote. Read it. Read everything Raymond Carver wrote. His death is hard to accept, but at least he lived."

--Salman Rushdie, 1989