Clive James 'saying goodbye' through his poetry.

BBC News - Clive James 'saying goodbye' through his poetry:
Terminally ill author and critic Clive James says he has "started saying goodbye" through his poetry.

He was diagnosed with leukaemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2010 and has been close to death on several occasions.

But, he told presenter James Naughtie, he maintains a positive outlook.
"It's important not to be morbid," he said.
"The secret there is to keep a sense of proportion. I'm at the hospital two or three times a week usually and... if you hang around a hospital long enough, you'll see things that'll remind you that you've had a lucky life. If you can see at all, you've had a lucky life.
He added: "I'm getting near to what my friend [film director] Bruce Beresford calls the departure lounge - but I've got a version of it that doesn't hurt, so I may as well enjoy myself as long as I can."
James has continued to write, and said he was putting the finishing touches to a book of essays about poetry, and why it has exerted such a pull on him throughout his life.
He joked that if he was to "drop off the twig", the book could be published posthumously, "which is good for the family finances".
"My disasters haven't been that bad, even the personal ones," he said. "My family is still together.

"Even with my health, things could have been worse. It could have hurt, for example, and it didn't. So I haven't got all that much to be miserable about.
"I like to think I have a sunny nature, but a sunny nature doesn't last long if you're in real pain. I've just been lucky."
'via Blog this'