Saturday, July 31, 2010

ADIOS, KING: PAUL "GINGATAO" SQUIRES



Paul Squires was an Australian poet. He died on July 28, 2010. I never met him, never spoke to him on the phone, but he called me his friend and I liked to think of him as one of mine. He supported my writing more, and brought more people to my blog, than anyone outside of Maxine Clarke, another fine Australian poet. I used to dream about going to Brisbane after "Richie" became published and buying Paul a beer, but that won't happen now, if it ever could.

Enough! This is Paul's
Gingatao blog, with his final posted poem. Here are some of my favorites of his. And if you look through most any of the comments on most any of the posts on this blog you will find him being generous, witty and bracingly direct. He was one of the best, and he went way too early. And he gave this beautiful, beautiful stuff away for free. What a man he was.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

He was one in a million. The day is a little less bright without him. I am sorry you never got to meet him but am glad you knew him via the web. It's a sad time, indeed. Look after yourself.

Gabrielle Bryden said...

But he would rather have been paid for some of it - haha - lovely post, thank you.

tipota said...

yes jason, well said, thank you. a king among us indeed.

Tina Trivett said...

((Hugs, Jason))

Tracey said...

Great words Jason ... he is so missed.

jonahknight said...

A clean white sheet
six fathoms deep

and

time is the only commodity

And we are all set back.

Anonymous said...

Hello. It's taken me a while to be able to go through the tributes to Paul. I get this one. Totally. And I'm grateful that I do. Grateful to you. You know Paul did get paid for his writing on occasion and we discussed it often - the pros and cons of publishing 'free' on the net. But you see, you are creating an audience, creating the fuel to keep writing and to entertain. It's a rolling stone building momentum and one day *kaboom* he would say. He believed in it totally and was very much in admiration of your work here. Thanks for remembering him. Even now, I'm not sure whether I should be saying these things in comments - sheesh, don't know what's best whichever way but these words are for you and they are the only way I can tell you how I appreciated this post so there you are. Just push the darn button Kiersty.

Jason Gusmann said...

thank you so much, kiersty