Krapp's Last Tape by Doug Holder

          Based on a play by Samuel Beckett

In the end
I became
what was
once a
subject
of my fascination.

An old man
praying over
a tape recorder
of memories,
wincing at
his youthful
pomposity.

In some
dark, dank
room
constantly
trying to edit
the mournful dirge
of things
unsaid,
undone.

To rewind,
to hover
under the sliver
of light
from the disrepair
of a lamp...
to listen
again and again
to that time
she came
to me--
smiled...

and her eyes
finally
let me...
in.



Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He teaches Creative Writing at Endicott College. For years he ran poetry groups for psychiatric patients at McLean Hospital outside of Boston. His latest collection is The Essential Doug Holder: New and Selected Poems.