The Mailer Review/Volume 3, 2009/A Psalm for Norman Mailer

Written by
Nicholas Samaras

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URL: http://prmlr.us/mr03sam

Let there be one who wanted to lend God
a hand and bench-pressed the world,
the one whose hair refused to turn white
until the very end, who waved his canes
skyward, saying, come on, come on, then—
ready to box even with God. Who will right
our conditions but the man who explains
our conditions? Like an Old Testament prophet
in the modern world, one man hurled
words as salve and conscience, hooks
into our flesh. When he left us, this world
became impoverished by one, as loss portends.
But let this man’s vision remain in his books.
Let there be one and let there be one again.