Sorrow: Liam Rector (1949-2007)

I received news today that poet, and Bennington founder and director Liam Rector has died. Liam, who committed suicide yesterday, was loved by myself and all the students, faculty, staff, and visitors of Bennington. We will miss him dearly.

The following poem was sent to a fellow classmate by her poetry instructor at Bennington. Please keep Liam, his wife, Tree Swenson, and their daughter in your thoughts and prayers.

The Remarkable Objectivity of Your Old Friends
by Liam Rector

We did right by your death and went out,
Right away, to a public place to drink,
To be with each other, to face it.

We called other friends - the ones
Your mother hadn't called - and told them
What you had decided, and some said

What you did was right; it was the thing
You wanted and we'd just have to live
With that, that your life had been one

Long misery and they could see why you
Had chosen that, no matter what any of us
Thought about it, and anyway, one said,

Most of us abandoned each other a long
Time ago and we'd have to face that
If we had any hope of getting it right.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made to the Liam Rector Scholarship Fund at The Writing Seminars of Bennington College, to organizations in support of Free Speech, or to The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).