Did you ever read, NOTES TO MYSELF by Hugh Prather?
If you were like me, and millions of others, it was one of my favorite books of poetry. He was the first published poet who wrote "free form verse poetry" like I did. He just wrote from his heart. My copy of this book is well and often read...
I loved and related to his work. He motivated me to organize my box of poetry into journals and began a habit of keeping journals for over forty years.
I read in the paper this morning he died in his hot tub after suffering a heart attack on November 15, at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He is survived by his wife Gayle Prather, their two sons and a son from a previous marriage. He was 72.
The article said he was a very humble and unassuming man, who was often quoted saying, "I'm no better than anyone else". People often offered to pay him for his advice and he would humbly refuse. If someone insisted, he would donate the money to charity. He wrote several books, which I have seven. He and his wife Gayle co-wrote a series of advice books for married couples.
Some favorite quotes from "Notes"...are:
"My trouble is I analyze life
instead of live it."
"Don't fight a fact, deal with it."
"Fame isn't fame. It only appears that way from a distance"
"Love unites the part with the whole.
Love unites me with the world and with
myself. My life work could well be love.
Love is the universe complete. Detachment
is the universe divided. Detachment divides
me from myself and from others. Love is
the vision that can see all as one and one
as all: "I and my father are one". Is
there but one reality and one truth? Love
shows me where all minds and essences unite.
How do I get love? I have it. I must
drop my definitions of love. Love is not
saying nice things to people or smiling or
doing good deeds. Love is love. Don't
strive for love, be it.
I love because I love."
Thank you Mr. Prather for all you have written and what you have meant in my life...
5 comments:
That is quite sad.
Well, there was a time in my life that I would have said he lived a full life. But now, as I get older myself, it seems premature. I appreciate the information, even if it is very sorrowful to have lost such a great man.
I am uncomfortable with most poetry...and it certainly is the fault of the poems. But you have convinced me that it is important for me to familiarize myself with Mr. Prathers' work.
I am not familiar with his work, Donna. I'm going to have to check into some of his books; I am sorry for his passing, 72 seems young, doesn't it?
betty
Perhaps the only good that comes from the loss of someone who has inspired us is the chance to look back and see how, through their work and their words, we became more than we might have been without them. I'm glad he gave so much to you and many others.
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