RIP Alex Higgins

No, he wasn't a good man in many ways, and his troubles were largely of his own making. But he was an absolute genius at the one thing he did well, and watching someone do something as well as that is life-enhancing in just the same way as reading a great poem or hearing Robeson sing. So in memory, here's a poem I wrote about him in 2001, which was first published in The Movement of Bodies (Seren 2005)

Forgiven

Bad boy going on 50, trace the bones
through your skin, you're like some consumptive...